Hyderabad: Rajya Sabha member of Parliament and YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) leader Mopidevi Venkataramana on Tuesday flayed opposition parties for misleading fishermen by propagating false information on Government Order 217 (GO217) regarding open auction of fish tanks.
He stated that the state government has issued an order only to free fishermen from middlemen and capitalists, and improve their living standards.
Venkataramana, while addressing the media at the party’s central office, remarked that the fishermen societies that exist at present are for name sake and only a nominal amount is being given to the society members. He added that the state government will be implementing G.O 217 to ensure Rs 15, 000 revenue to each member.
The YSRCP politician observed that the Telugu Desam Party and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are conspiring against the G.O only for their political interests and not for the betterment of fishermen.
The Rajya Sabha MP said that only 27 fish tanks in Nellore district will be called for open auction as a pilot project and 30 percent of revenue earned through auction will be credited to the concerned fishermen society. He added that the state government will look into extending the project to other districts after analyzing the results in Nellore district.
Addressing the allegations of the opposition parties, he YSRCP leader said that they are misleading that the G.O will be implemented across the state and asserted that it’s confined to Nellore district at present. He questioned over the silence of a section of fishermen community leaders when TDP national president and former AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu made comments against them during the previous government.
Venkataramana reminded that Naidu had given Rs 2,000 as ban period relief for fishermen and increased it to Rs 4,000 prior to 2019 elections and added that there were pending arrears of ban period relief even now.
He stated that chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has increased ban period relief from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 after coming to power. The YSRCP leader added that subsidy on diesel has increased from Rs 6 to Rs 9 and the subsided amount for 3,000 liters diesel of mechanized boats would be credited into fishermen accounts immediately once they buy the petrol.
The MP claimed that the Andhra Pradesh (AP) state government has sanctioned construction of four fishing harbors in phase one. Furthermore, he added that the works also started and land was also allocated for setting up AP Marine and Fisheries University in West Godavari district.