CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami on Wednesday urged his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan to issue entry passes to fishermen from Kanyakumari district in the state and permit them to resume fishing there from August 1.
Taking the plight of Kanyakumari fishermen to the notice of Vijayan, Palaniswami said the Kanyakumari fishermen had to berth their vessels in the neighbouring state and rush back to their district due to the coronavirus outbreak.
About 350 mechanised fishing boats and 750 traditional boats belonging to these fishermen were presently berthed in various fishing harbour/fish landing centres in Kerala.
"Due to COVID-19 pandemic, nationwide lockdown was announced by the government and various travel restrictions were enforced to contain the spread of virus," Palaniswami said.
"Due to this, Tamil Nadu fishermen returned to their home towns in Kanyakumari district leaving behind their fishing boats in various fishing harbours/landing centres of Kerala State," Palaniswami explained in a letter to Vijayan.
Owing to lockdown restrictions, the fishermen could neither go to Kerala for maintenance of their boats nor resume their fishing activities. Around 25,000 fishermen families of Kanyakumari have lost their livelihood for the past three months.
Various fishermen associations in Kanyakumari requested the Tamil Nadu government to arrange entry passes to Kerala to enable them to take up maintenance of their fishing boats immediately and facilitate them to resume fishing from August 1 onwards, Palaniswai said.
"I request you to issue necessary instructions to the appropriate authorities to issue entry passes, so as to allow the Kanyakumari district fishermen into Kerala state and also permit them to resume fishing from August 1, 2020 onwards, after the completion of the fishing ban period in the west coast of our country," he said.