The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Denial of relief rankles fishermen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Denial of relief rankles fishermen

By G. Nagaraja

NARSAPUR (W.G. DIST), DEC. 29. The calamity relief extended to victims of tsunami by the State Government has failed to reach Myla Dhanalakshmi of Chinaminavanilanka for she is not a member of the village fishermen cooperative society.

``All help is reaching society members only,'' she complains while talking to the The Hindu . "We used to get a daily income of Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 by fishing in a country boat. Our boat and nets were damaged and we were deprived of income. We find the going tough as we have no income to feed ourselves,'' Ms. Dhanalakshmi says.

Even as the Government is giving 25 kg of rice and Rs. 1,500 in cash for purchase of utensils to the affected families who are members of the society, she wonders why the Government has failed to extend a similar gesture to non-members of the society, who also suffered heavy losses. Barring 60 families, which are members of the cooperative society, all the remaining villagers have been deprived of relief.

`Officials insensitive'

To quote the Andhra Pradesh Fishermen Welfare Association president, Barri Prasad, most of the fishermen have neither been allowed by the Government to making a living by fishing in the sea as usual nor treated on a par with the society members in availing of relief measures.

Pointing out that the administration has limited its relief operations to a few members of fishermen cooperative societies, he says that the officials are not bothered to even take up enumeration work in Kothadindla Pallavapalem, Mollaparru, Mollaparru Colony and other affected villages in Mogaltur mandal.

"Relief measures are undertaken in three villages only where human loss is reported. There is an urgent need for the Government to come to the rescue of fishermen in other villages also whose habitat was badly disturbed."

Besides non-members of fishermen cooperative societies, salt farmers too have failed to receive any succour from the Government.

Koppadi Venkateswarlu of Sardugadapa has received ex gratia and other help from the Government for the death of his father, Narasimhamurthy. However, he has not received any help for the loss of 300 bags of salt worth Rs. 90 each.

Fishing in the sea, fish trade and salt cultivation are the main sources of income in the coastal villages of Narasapur and Mogaltur mandals. According to information, 135 farmers lost 2,000 bags of salt in Sardugadapa village alone.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Andhra Pradesh

News Update

Stories in this Section