Gullible fisher folks desperate to eke out a living are being taken for a ride by unscrupulous elements by selling them bogus promise to secure registrations from the Fisheries Department either for setting up Chinese nets and stake nets or for the ones already operational.
The Fisheries Department has come across such frauds where victims were cheated of thousands of rupees on such promises that could never be legally fulfilled. In fact, the department even had to issue a release warning potential victims to be alert against such fraudsters.
“The fact is that the department is no longer giving registrations for such nets, which were issued decades ago under two Acts, which are now defunct and since then subsumed in the Kerala Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture Act, 2010. Only, the existing registered nets are allowed to be transferred to the successors of the original registration holders,” said Nousher Khan, Deputy Director of the Fisheries Department, Ernakulam zone. Already, there are thousands of illegal fishing nets set up without any registrations across the district. It is the operators of these nets who are being cheated mainly with promises of securing registration from the department.
“They realise that they are without due registrations when they are asked to re-register when it is due. Many people who operate such nets have nothing to show for their original registrations, exposing their illegal existence,” said Mr. Khan.
He said that Kumbalanghi alone had about 2,000 such illegal nets criss-crossing the surrounding waterways. However, the Palluruthy police having jurisdiction over the area said that they hadn’t received any complaints about being cheated in the name of securing registrations for Chinese and stake nets, which sources said could be an indication that the victims were either reluctant to approach the police or were from marginalised sections.
Meanwhile, the Fisheries Department has increasingly turned its attention towards removing illegal nets that posed hardship to inland fishermen and even water transport.
“We have removed over 150 such nets from the national waterways between Ernakulam and Kottapuram. Our next focus is Kumbalanghi,” said Mr. Khan
