The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Race against time on ID cards for fishermen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 18, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Race against time on ID cards for fishermen

Staff Reporter

Fishing craft also to be registered under Marine Fisheries Regulation Act

December 31 is the deadline for registration
Identity cards become crucial in view of holes in coastal security apparatus

Kakinada: The Fisheries Department is racing against time to meet the December 31 deadline for issuing identity cards to fishermen and getting fishing craft registered under the Marine Fisheries Regulation Act (MFRA). Most of the sea-going vessels are already registered with five fisheries development officers in the district who have been designated as authorized officers to implement the provisions of the MFRA.

Issuing identity cards is a long-drawn process as the district has nearly 10,400 boats of all types with the crew size ranging from five on motorized boats and country craft to 7-10 members on mechanized vessels.

Authorised officers

Every person going on these boats, trawlers etc aged between 15 and 70 as per the MFRA, has to be given identity cards without fail and strict orders were passed to comply with these procedures at the earliest despite the resource constraint and paucity of time. Authorized officers for these purposes are located at Tuni, Katrenikona, Razole, Kakinada fishing harbour and another one is attached to the deputy director’s office (Kakinada urban).

According to official sources, Kakinada urban and Katrenikona authorized officers have different categories of boats numbering about 4,000 each. Nearly 1,850 boats exist in the purview of the authorized officer at Tuni and 150 in Razole area.

There are about 380 mechanized vessels in the limits of Kakinada harbour.

Getting all these vessels registered and issuing identity cards are the major challenges confronted by Fisheries Department which can ill-afford to be complacent in view of the pressure mounted on it to fill the gaping holes in the coastal security apparatus along with other State agencies, in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Alert transmitters

Deputy Director of Fisheries VVSPRV Prasad said that what helped the department in contributing to coastal surveillance and security was the provision of `distress alert transmitters’ (DAT) made by Indian Space Research Organization, to the fishermen, who can send SOS messages by merely pressing buttons on the DAT.

The DAT sends the messages to INSAT-3A satellite which in turn redirects the distress alerts to Coast Guard ships for rushing to rescue troubled fishermen and boats accurately locating them with the help of GPS fitted in the instruments.

For the time being, 15 DAT were provided for Kakinada area to operate on a pilot basis.

Information of any suspicious activities on the high seas can also be conveyed through the DAT though they are primarily meant to facilitate rescue of fishermen who find themselves trapped in situations like fire, boat capsize and any medical help that may be required.

Each DAT costs nearly Rs 10,000. Ways to provide these instruments at less prices have to be found to enable fishermen to buy them.

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

Andhra Pradesh