COVID BLUES: 4 thousand fishermen stranded in Gujarat

Srikakulam: The stranding of thousands of fishermen from nine coastal districts in other states, mainly in Gujarat, during Covid-19 lockdown, highlights their miserable lives.

The marine fishermen from Srikakulam to Nellore in the state could not earn minimum income due to lack of facilities for fishing and are forced to migrate to other states like Veraval in Gujarat, Chennai and Mangaluru in search of livelihood.

According to various fishermen unions and fisheries department officials, over 10,000 fishermen are migrating every year from the state to other parts of the country.

In the wake of outbreak of Covid-19 and subsequent lockdown, the fishermen from these districts are stranded in Veraval, Mangaluru and Chennai.

Of them, some reached their native places by purchasing boats there. But the government registered cases against these fishermen for violating lockdown rules and sent them to quarantine centres.

According to reports, about 4,000 fishermen from the state were stranded in Veraval harbour where they were not even provided proper food, water and other basic facilities.

Due to lack of facilities, two fishermen from Srikakulam—V Jagannadham of Kalingapatnam and M Koyi Raju of D Matsyalesam villages—died at Veraval.

Minister for Roads and Buildings Dharmana Krishna Das announced here on Thursday that the migrated fishermen will reach their native villages soon.

All these fishermen will be brought here by sea route and each fisherman will be given Rs 2,000 as immediate relief, the minister assured.

"Bringing fishermen on ship is not safe and they could be brought on a special train which will reach here in a day. The ship will take at least one-week to reach here," says Democratic Traditional Fishers Workers Forum (DTFWF) general secretary D Pal. "We are requesting the Central government to arrange a special train for stranded fishermen for this purpose as food and medical aid is not possible on par with trains in ships," he added.

Fishermen union leaders in Srikakulam, D Sudhakar, M Sriramulu and M Gurumurthy demanded the government to pay Rs 25,000 as immediate aid to them for the loss of earning due to Corona lockdown.

All India Fishermen Development Forum (AIFDF) president A Ramesh demanded permanent livelihood measures for fishermen to prevent migrations.