Mangaluru: Four years after the Centre stopped supplying non-PDS kerosene, traditional fishermen along Karnataka’s coast say rising fuel costs have forced some to stop fishing, restrict trips, shift occupations or migrate for work.
Yashvant Gangoli, secretary of Karnataka Rajya Nadadoni Meenugarara Sangha, said Karnataka has 8,030 permits for traditional fishing boats and requires 24,090 kL of kerosene over 10 months, based on a requirement of 300 litres per boat per month. Against our requirement, we sometimes received only 2,000-3,000 kL at a time. Even about 8,000 kL a year was considered high,” he said. Fishermen earlier paid around Rs 35 a litre for kerosene, with the state bearing the balance cost, according to Gangoli. After the central supply stopped, the state shifted to industrial kerosene and introduced a Rs 35-per-litre incentive. In Uttara Kannada, Somanath Moger, former secretary of Nadadoni Fishermen Association of Uttara Kannada, said nearly 90% of fishermen had kept their boats ashore.
Gangoli said. Aswath, president of Karavali Mula Meenugarara Sanghatane, said high fuel costs had forced some traditional fishermen to stop fishing or restrict themselves to shorter trips. An electric company approached us, but has not given us anything for testing so far,” he said. We send the proposal every year,” he said.
“We have demanded lower GST on industrial kerosene or restoration of central non-PDS supply. If pollution is the reason for stopping the special supply while kerosene remains available for other uses, why was it stopped for fishermen? “We are hoping some new option might come for us. “A proposal from food and civil supplies department has been sent to the central govt. We have asked them for a higher quantity, but nothing has come from the Centre.
“Earlier, the Centre supplied non-PDS kerosene quarterly.