With demonetisation hitting fish trade in the coastal regions of Thanjavur, fishermen in the district have decided to keep off the sea. Alleging that cash crunch has prohibited fish traders from buying the sparse catch, they have demanded easing of cash restriction on withdrawals for fishermen and traders so that fishing activity continues.
Fishing is the main vocation in the coastal towns of Sethubavachatram, Mallipattinam and Kallivayal Thottam areas. From here more than 2,000 fishermen set off in more than 300 mechanised fibre boats to indulge in deep sea fishing.
When the Central Government announced the demonetisation measures on November 8, the cash crunch forced the fishermen to declare a strike on November 10 and 19. When the Centre eased some restrictions on withdrawals and payments at fuel stations, many fishermen started venturing into the sea from November 20.
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But the same withdrawal limit ensured that the numerous wholesale traders who used to swarm the markets in the coastal towns absented themselves. “Freshly caught untreated fish have little shelf life and we do not have any modern facility here to prolong the edible nature of the catch. The scores of fish traders who used to come to our towns and the fish landing jetty for purchasing the daily catch are not turning up these days as they are not having adequate cash to disburse to our fishermen. That means our fish catch is getting degraded within the same day and all our efforts are going down the drain with no benefit to us,'' said Fishermen's Association State Secretary Tajuddeen.
Traders who export prawn used to bring large amount of cash as they could not give any bank instrument or transfer money through electronic gadgets to the fishermen. The nature of the fishing activity being what it is, only cash was the feasible option for both who sell and buy fish. Demonetisation put paid to all that since November 9.
A meeting of the fishermen under the aegis of the Association was held on Sunday with Mr. Tajuddeen in the chair. The meeting resolved that considering the current situation when traders are not in a position to come and buy fish, there was no use in venturing into sea for fishing. As such, the fishermen in Thanjavur district have refrained from going to the sea from Monday.
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Meanwhile, at the fish markets in Thanjavur East Gate and at the Burma Colony, sales was dull. Since traders can't store fish for more than three days, many sellers were seen dumping the decaying fish.