The State government is protecting the interests of fishermen and their families extending support even when they did not venture into the sea during turbulent season, Housing Minister R. Vaithilingam said here on Saturday.
Addressing a function to create awareness on various schemes being implemented by the State government for the benefit of inland and marine fishermen, the Minister said that in four years, Rs. 3.50 crore had been disbursed to 17,708 fishermen families in Thanjavur district as fishing ban season grant, which was increased from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 a month per family by the AIADMK regime.
Under the National Marine Fishermen Savings and Relief Scheme, grants estimated at Rs. 72 lakh had been disbursed to 4,026 fishermen families as compensation fund when they could not go to sea for fishing during storms and inclement weather conditions in three years. That apart, Rs. 1.17 crore had been granted to fishermen as savings fund during 2014-15 to benefit 4,367 beneficiaries in Thanjavur district as part of the relief during the hardship season of September to December.
The Minister added that even inland fishermen and fish breeders had been extended assistance in the form of financial support, subsidy, fish feed supply, and so on to encourage inland fish farming.
District Collector N. Subbaiyan, Thanjavur MLA M. Rengasamy, District Panchayat Chairperson Amudharani Ravichandran, Director of the Marine University, Nagapattinam, Nagore Meeran, Joint Director of Fisheries M. Subburaj, Assistant Director K. Thirunavukkarasu, and Maritime Export Development Agency Deputy Director S. Vijayakumar spoke.
