Fish workers here are planning to intensify agitation for their subsidised quota of kerosene for fishing vessels.
This month, they say, they were totally dependent on black market kerosene for their livelihood. The quantity offered through the quota is 129 litres a month at Rs.15.80 a litre. But the quota for this month has not been released, forcing them to purchase kerosene from the black market at Rs.80 a litre.
H. Basilal, Kollam district president of the CITU-affiliated Matsya Thozhilali Union, said denial of kerosene quota was driving the traditional fishing sector to a crisis. When the traditional fishing sector got motorised in the early 1980s, the monthly kerosene quota for each vessel was 600 litres. Later, the quota was slashed to 450 litres, then to 350 litres, and now to 129 litres.
Mr. Basilal said the present quota did not meet even one-third of the fish workers’ monthly fuel requirement. They were forced to depend on black marketeers for the rest. Black marketeers were operating in all fishing villages. The Kollam city fishing sector, from Pallithottam to Tangasseri, had 786 traditional crafts eligible for the subsidised quota. This month’s quota had not been released, he said.
The fact remained that there was no kerosene quota as such from the Centre for the fishing sector. The quota they got was kerosene for domestic purpose diverted by the State government to the sector, he said. Based on a report that almost all houses in the State, including those in the sector, had been electrified, the domestic quota was drastically slashed, he said.
Quota for this month not yet released
Fish workers dependent on black market