Union Minister of State for Fisheries L. Murugan on Thursday said there had been a substantial increase in budgetary allocation for the fisheries sector after Narendra Modi took over as the Prime Minister in 2014.
Speaking at a function to distribute Kisan cards and other benefits to fishermen in Puducherry, he said the budgetary allocation was about ₹3,500 crore till Mr. Modi took over as Prime Minister. This increased to about ₹5,000 crore in 2015. Thereafter, the annual allocation went up in every Budget.
In the last nine years, the Central government has set aside around ₹38,000 crore for the fisheries sector. The amount has been utilised for welfare measures, improving means of livelihood and infrastructure development in coastal areas, including construction of fish landing facilities, he said.
The Centre was planning to spend around ₹100 crore in Puducherry to develop fish landing centres at Kalapet, Vaithikuppam and Manaveli, Mr. Murugan said. “The efforts of the Prime Minister to concentrate on the sector by creating a separate Ministry for Fisheries have yielded results. The marine production and exports have gone up substantially,” he said.
He along with Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and Chief Minister N. Rangasamy distributed the benefits of various welfare schemes to the fishermen. Speaker R. Selvam and Minister for Public Works K. Lakshminarayanan were also present.
