A meeting of fishermen at the Malpe fisheries harbour here on Wednesday decided to shut down fisheries operations in all three coastal districts and stage a ‘rasta roko’ on National Highway 66 at Karavali Junction here on January 6.
They decided to do this to put pressure on the State government to trace the fishing boat, Suvarna Tribhuja with seven fishermen on board, which went missing off the Goa coast on December 15.
Speaking to presspersons after the meeting, Satish Kundar, president of Malpe Fishermen’s Association, said that it was 18 days since the boat went missing.
But neither the Udupi district in-charge Minister Jaimala nor the Fisheries Minister Venkatarao Nadagouda had bothered to visit the fishermen in Malpe with regard to the missing boat.
About 1,000 deep-sea trawlers and 130 purse seine boats had stopped their fishing operations and were anchored at the Malpe fisheries harbour for the last nine days after the Suvarna Tribhuja went missing as this created an atmosphere of fright among the fishermen. Only small country boats were going out for fishing, he said.
Yashpal Suvarna, president of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts Cooperative Fish Marketing Federation, said that on January 6 the fishermen will gather in large numbers at the Malpe harbour at 8.30 a.m.
They will then leave on a padayatra to Karavali Junction and stage a rasta roko on National Highway 66. This agitation will continue till Ms. Jaimala came and pacified the fishermen.
The fishermen in all fisheries harbours in the State will shut down their business, he said.
Earlier, speaking at the meeting, Anand Kharvi Uppunda, fishermen leader, said that Mr. Nadagouda had camped in Byndoor for nearly 15 days to campaign for the Janata Dal (Secular) – Congress candidate, Madhu Bangarappa in the recently concluded bypolls for Shivamogga parliamentary seat.
“But Mr. Nadagouda has all the time for election campaign, but has no time for fishermen though the boat has been untraceable for last 18 days,” he said.
Manju Billava, another fishermen leader, demanded to know why Ms. Jaimala, despite being district incharge Minister, had not come and meet the fishermen despite such a serious incident.
“Do we need such an irresponsible district in-charge Minister?” he questioned.
