Mangaluru/Udupi, Aug 7: After 45 days of ban and five days of strike, the fishermen using mechanised vessels (trawlers and purse-seine) in coastal Karnataka have finally ventured into sea. Hundreds of mechanised boats started the fishing voyage from Mangaluru and Malpe ports on Thursday and Firiday.
The fishermen across coastal Karnataka called off their indefinite strike on Thursday after holding protest rallies in Udupi and Mangaluru.
Nithin Kumar, president of the Mangaluru Trawl Boat Meenugarara Sangha, said that they would wait for a week or so to get the reaction from the government for their demands, including their opposition to direct benefit transfer of subsidy, before chalking out further course of action. Members cannot be made to endlessly wait on the shore and be deprived of their income, he said.
About 150 vessels left Bunder on Thursday and gradually all vessels would leave after filling diesel and ice. There is shortage of ice too, Mr. Kumar said. Vessels would take at least a week to return to the shores, he added.
While the primary grouse is against the direct transfer of subsidy, which hitherto was being reflected in subsidised rates of diesel at the rate of 300 litres a day per vessel, fishermen also have been demanding increase in the daily quota to 600 litres; abolition of one ration card, one vessel rule and many more.
The Karnataka Purse-Seine Meenugarara Sangha president Naveen Bangera told The Hindu that the continued strike would not only have affected lakhs of people depending upon fishing, but also several ancillary industries like ice plants, fish processing plants etc. As such, they have decided to withdraw the week-long strike.
Fishermen from Mangaluru and Malpe would hold a joint meeting within a week to decide further action, he said.
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