The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Repaired boats handed over to fishermen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 16, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Repaired boats handed over to fishermen

Staff Reporter

CII spends Rs. 20 lakhs for setting right 75 boats

THANJAVUR: : Fishermen of Eeripurakarai in the Pattukottai panchayat union in Thanjavur district are a happy lot. They could not venture into the sea for the past four months, as their boats were damaged in the December 26, 2004 tsunami.

Today their boats are seaworthy, thanks to the efforts made by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The CII has spent Rs. 20 lakhs on repairing 75 boats of fishermen and handed them over to the fishermen on Sunday.

K.N. Krishnamurthy, Project Director, Tsunami of CII, and Stella, economic adviser to the CII, handed over the boats through the Thanjavur branch of the Indian Red Cross.

Shankar, Revenue Divisional Officer, Pattukottai, and Sohoni, Commanding Officer of the Naval Detachment at Mallipattinam, and Ko.Vi. Raja Mahendran, Chidambaram and Venkatesan of the Red Cross were present.

Mr. Krishnamurthy said the CII rushed immediate relief worth Rs. 6.8 crores to the affected in the State, Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Now it was implementing projects to sustain the livelihood of fishermen.

The long-term measures included skills training for fishermen in net weaving and repair, boat repair, engines servicing, carpentry, electrical wiring, plumbing, automobile mechanism, driving and computer skills.

The programmes will begin from June in Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari, districts in Tamil Nadu and Kollam and Aleppey in Kerala and Karaikal in Pondichery.

The CII also planned to spread micro-enterprise through women self-help groups.

It also planned to create community infrastructure such as community halls, schools and cyclone shelters. It proposed to make fishermen from fish-hunting into fish-farming community. The projects included provision of international know-how to build a fishing village and introducing best practices in cold chains and refrigerator transport and modern fishing methods.

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