Police chase out illegally fishing TN mechanised boats

Singarayakonda (Prakasam District): The marine police, fisheries department officials and local fishermen chased out mechanised trawlers from Tamil Nadu that were illegally fishing in Andhra Pradesh coastal region, near Pakala Pothaiah Gari Pattapupalem in Prakasam district on Thursday.

According to Andhra Pradesh Marine Fishing (regulation) Act, 1995 and others, the State government announced that a distance up to 8 kilometres on the sea as the reserved zone for traditional crafts and any authorised officer can seize mechanized fishing trawlers or vessels. Also, mechanised vessels of length 15 meters and above, with weights of more than 25 tonnes also should not fish in the reserved waters.

Following many incidents of domination from Tamil Nadu trawlers, the local fishermen and marine police with the fisheries department officials tried to capture the mechanised trawlers entered in the reserved waters. On Thursday, Marine Police CI RS Kishore Kumar, SIs Mastan Shariff and Eswaraiah, ASIs Ch Murali and Venkateswara Rao, Fisheries JD Chandrasekhar Reddy, AD Usha Kiran, Fishermen Association zonal president Nagarjuna, district president Srinivasa Rao and village fishermen president Rosaiah ventured into the sea near Pakala Pothaiah Gari Pattapupalem on motorboats.

The officials ordered the mechanised trawlers from Tamil Nadu to stay where they are but fearing the authorities may seize their vessels, the fishermen sped up their boats and left the fishing zones near the coast. The police and officers chased the Tamil Nadu boats for a distance and returned to the coast. The officials warned that they would not allow the mechanized trawlers to fish in the restricted waters again.

The fishermen from the erstwhile coastal districts of Nellore, Prakasam and Guntur districts in Andhra Pradesh alleged that for the last few years, heavy mechanised boats with powerful engines from Puducherry union territory and Cuddalore, Nagapatnam, Tuttukudi and other places of Tamil Nadu are venturing into the reserved zone for the traditional wood crafts in Andhra Pradesh area and damaging their nets, boats and even attacking the fishermen. This is causing a loss of about Rs 10 lakh in each instance, they added. 'Samudratheera Matsyakarmika Union' leaders from Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore

districts said that they will chase the Tamil Nadu fishing boats if there is no response from the AP government.