Ramanathapuram
Minister for Information Technology M. Manikandan has pulled up an official of the Fisheries department for not listening to him and distributing ban period allowance to the families of fishermen, owning mechanised boats.
Speaking after inaugurating the ‘first plate cutting’ ceremony at ‘Uma Ship Builder & Repairs Ltd’ at Kunthukal in Rameswaram on Sunday, he hit out at the official for denying ban period allowance of ₹ 5,000 per family to 292 fishermen on the ground that they were boat owners.
“What is your problem in giving the allowance when such fishermen in other parts of the State are given,” the Minister asked the official, who is in the cadre of Assistant Director, in the presence of Director of Fisheries G.S. Sameeran and Collector S. Natarajan.
Mr. Manikandan said as a Minister he had taken up the issue with him on several occasions but the official continued to adopt an anti-fishermen attitude, he alleged. If the boat owners were not eligible for the allowance, “why have you collected ₹1,500 from them during the rough season?,” he asked.
After the function got over, officials clarified that the State government welfare schemes of ban period and lean period allowances were given to all fishermen, including those who owned boats in the State. The Minister got confused with the Centrally-sponsored National Savings-cum-Relief Scheme for Marine Fishermen, under which boat owners were not eligible, they said.
Coming to the rescue of the ‘beleaguered’ official, Mr. Sameeran shook hands and congratulated him on rightly implementing the government schemes.
The officials who received kudos from Mr. Manikandan also took exception to the Minister singling out an official in his attack. It was totally unfair on the part of the Minister to find fault with an official who implements government orders, they said.
