Relief for oil spill victims within a fortnight

The Minister, who reviewed the measures in place ahead of the spawning season, said fishing ban relief would be provided to as many as 1.6 lakh families during the ban period between April 15 and June 15. 

The High Court on Thursday ordered relief on the oil spillage in Ennore caused by the collision of two vessels MT BW Maple and Dawn Kanchipuram on January 28, 2017. 

Referring to the direction, the Minister said that the government had advanced its arguments to impress the court to order compensation from competent authorities. 

The Minister revealed that the disbursal would be marked by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami handing out the relief certificates to a few soon. 

“The money would be credited in the bank accounts of the beneficiaries directly. The list of beneficiaries would include a wide range of mechanised boat owners, fibre-boat owners, catamarans, workers, members of fishers’ welfare cooperative societies, fishers’ welfare cooperative societies for women, and others from the allied industry,” the Minister added. “The state has compiled all the details over the period of six months and the money would reach the respective accounts registered by the beneficiaries,” he added. 

Regarding the fishing ban, the Minister said that the ban would be effected between April 15 and June 15 for a period of 2 months, to facilitate the breeding of fish and to conserve marine ecology.

“The state has allocated as much as Rs 82 crore towards fishing ban relief to be paid to as much as 1.6 lakh families,” he noted. 

Jayakumar said there were no fishermen from Tamil Nadu languishing in Sri Lankan prisons since the government has taken every effort to get the last of them released. On the 182 boats, which remain impounded by the island nation government, Jayakumar said that step were in place to release them as well. 

On other initiatives in the offing in the department, the Minister revealed that Cochin Shipyard has been building shipping vessels ordered under Prime Minister’s Blue Revolution scheme, wherein the boat owners get vessels at highly subsidised rate and the highest being a meagre 10 per cent contribution from the beneficiaries.