Andhra Pradesh government will disburse the fifth tranche of ‘YSR Matsyakara Bharosa’ funds which was introduced to support the fishermen families during the ban on sea fishing.To this extent, in a meeting to be held in Nizampatnam of Bapatla district on Tuesday.
Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy would directly deposit a financial assistance of total Rs 231 crore to fishermen.These funds will be distributed Rs.10000 in cash per family to about 1,23,519 Gangaputras in the state who benefit through this scheme.
Meanwhile, the state government is implementing the ‘YSR Matsyakara Bharosa’ scheme from 2019 to stand by the Gangaputra who struggle for survival during the ban on fishing.
Also, the period between April 15 and June 14 every year has been announced as the ban period for sea fishing after the YSRCP came to power.
The Chief Minister will deposit a sum of Rs 108 crore directly into the bank accounts of 23,458 fishermen families in Konaseema and Kakinada districts, who lost their livelihood due to pipeline works of ONGC.
With the financial help which will be released on Tuesday, the total assistance provided under ‘YSR Matsyakara Bharosa’ alone since the YSRCP came to power will rise to Rs 538 crore.So far, each fisherman’s family received a benefit of Rs 50,000, at Rs 10,000 per family per year under YSR Matsyakara Bharosa alone.
For the betterment of fishermen’s lives and to prevent their migrations, the State government is setting up 10 fishing harbours and six fish landing centres of world-class standards at a cost of Rs 3,767.48 crore.To create large-scale employment opportunities and promote exports at lower transportation cost, the State government has initiated the construction of four ports in the last 4 years with an expenditure of about Rs 16,000 crore.
Andhra Pradesh Fisheries University is being set up in West Godavari district to produce professional and skilled human resources for imparting knowledge on better fishing.The government is supplying electricity to aqua farmers at a subsidised price of Rs 1.50 per unit and it has etablished Aquaculture Development Authority-2020 to promote, monitor and regulate aquaculture business activities.
The YSRCP leaders said, “During the previous Telugu Desam term, fishermen used to be given just Rs 2,000 as relief during the period of the ban on fishing, in the first two years.It was then enhanced to Rs 4,000.Only 60,000 families were offered the relief and the TDP government spent only Rs 21 crore per annum on an average for this purpose.”
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