Ongole: Harassed AP fishermen resolve to fight TN counterparts at sea

Ongole: The members of the 'Samudra Theera Matsya Karmika Union' from Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts resolved to fight with the fishermen from Tamil Nadu, who are using high speed prohibited boats for fishing in the reserved zone of Andhra Pradesh.

In the general body meeting held at Dr BR Ambedkar Bhavan here on Monday, the fishermen decided to buy a high-speed boat just like the fishermen from Tamil Nadu using, to chase them away.

The fishermen community leaders from the southern coastal area of Andhra Pradesh are complaining to the government authorities for the last few years that high-speed trawlers from Union territory of Pondicherry, Tuttukudi, Cuddalore, Nagapatnam and other places in Tamil Nadu are venturing into the reserved zone for traditional crafts of Andhra Pradesh, with their restricted metal-built high-speed boats.

The AP fishermen complained that the TN fishermen are damaging their boats and nets being used for fishing in the sea and they are suffering losses of about Rs 10 lakh for each instance and sought help in restricting the TN fishermen and also protection from them.

In the meeting held by the fishermen from Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts, the leaders advised the representatives from various fishing villages to choose three options, whether to continue persuading the government to strengthen the marine police and stop the fishermen from Tamil Nadu venturing into Andhra Pradesh region or to organise protests at various places to make the AP government interfere and resolve the problem by force or by consultations with the Tamil Nadu government or fight the intruders and capture the boats from the State and settle the issues between the community.

After hours of debate, the leaders of the 'Samudra Theera Matsya Karmika Union' from the Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts including M Jakraiah, R Chalapati Varma, A Venkataramana, V Srinivasa Rao, V Mohan Rao, K Tirupati Rao, P Venkatesh and others said that the fishermen from Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu are snatching away their livelihood of local fishermen by using the mechanised boats in the restricted zone of Andhra Pradesh. As there is no use even after several requests to the government and the officials, they announced that they, too, buy high-speed boats by gathering contributions and use them to chase the boats from Tamil Nadu, to protect the fishermen of the three districts of Andhra Pradesh.