MADURAI: The fishermen in coastal districts of the southern region wholeheartedly thanked the State government for providing enhanced relief during the annual fishing ban period, which is in progress.

S Emarit, president, Rameswaram All Mechanised Boats Fishermen Association, thanked Chief Minister MK Stalin and said the enhanced relief of Rs 8,000 for a fisherman has almost kept their families out of hunger as they had no alternate source of income during the ban period.

Last year, the ban period relief was Rs 5,000. Moreover, the government scheme provides some relief giving each family Rs 300 per day during fisherman’s incarceration in Sri Lankan prisons, Emarit said on Sunday.

The 61-day annual ban on deep sea fishing along the East Coast of Tamil Nadu came into force on April 15.

The ban, enforced by the government through the Fisheries Department, is aimed at facilitating the breeding of fish and the conservation of fish stock in marine ecology.

Mechanised boat fishermen have been instructed not to venture into the sea to avoid disturbance caused by trawlers to marine life during the breeding season. However, this restriction would not be binding on country boats, which would continue fishing as usual at sea, sources said.

Not only for the ban period, the State government also hiked lean period dole for fishermen families to Rs 6,000, M Tharmapichai, vice-president of Thoothukudi Mechanised Boats Fishermen Association, told DT Next, adding that since weather during the lean period of November and December was stormy and rainy ever year when the northeast monsoon disrupts local fishing off Thoothukudi coast.

The other factor, however, is that aggrieved families of fishermen, who die of natural causes related to heart conditions, do not get insurance benefits, despite paying premiums annually. Benefits are provided only for accident victims. As the fishermen are burdened by day-to-day work, Tharmapichai requested the government to consider heart attack deaths for insurance coverage.