Soon, Fisheries Development Corporation for UT

PUDUCHERRY: Soon, a Fisheries Development Corporation would be set up in the UT, Mathew Samuel, secretary of Fisheries Department, said on Monday. During an Open House, organised as part of the Vigilance Awareness Week here, he said the Centre has granted necessary clearance for it.The process is on for registration of the corporation, which would help in ensuring that schemes benefiting the UT fishermen reach them. However, considering the current financial scenario, it is not clear how much time it would require to make the corporation a reality. The Open House witnessed chaos and pandemonium in the beginning with the participants insisting on the session being chaired by the secretary of the department. Mathew Samuel, a special secretary, who was recently promoted to IAS, reached the discussion venue at Agriculture Department Complex after learning about it. The session started after a delay of nearly one-and-half hours. Answering a query on the amount distributed to repair boats damaged after tsunami, the secretay said `84 lakh was disbursed to 1,367 fishermen till last year. When pointed out that a seed farm of the Fisheries Department near Bahour was lying unused, he agreed that at present there was no activity on the premises, but added that steps would be taken to begin an aquaculture hatchery and to grow “Koduva” fish there.On demands such as construction of fish market at Villianur and reservation for fishermen, Samuel asked the participants to submit representations, which he assured would be forwarded to the departments concerned.Answering a query on the appointments on compassionate grounds, fisheries director G Ramalakshmi said two more applications were pending with the department. Samuel said a GO would be soon issued to give powers to deputy directors to disburse `2,000 to the family of fisherman in case of death. He asked the representatives of the fishermen and NGOs present at the Open House to register their boats as per the instructions of the Central government. Pointing out that so far only 2,600 boats from Puducherry were registered, he said the boat registration would have far reaching implications in future.