Meeting decides to speed up work on harbour

A meeting of officials and fishermen's representatives convened by state Fisheries Minister Abhayachandra Jain here today to discuss problems in the fishing sector decided to put pressure on the central and state governments to release required funds for speeding up the work on the fisheries harbour in the city.
At the meeting, Jain suggested that a delegation comprising Mps from the region be asked to meet union ministers to release the full quantum of grant promised for the harbour, official sources said.
Only Rs 11 crore out of the Rs 43 crore grant offered by the Centre had been released so far.

The officials told the minister that the state Finance department had informed them that no funds could be released till the Centre released its grant, which was delaying the harbour work.
Jain said a delegation of people's representatives could also meet Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and urge him to release more funds to carry out the work without interruption.
On boats from other states fishing in the sea off the Karnataka coast, Fisheries department director Veerappa Gowda said he had written to fisheries departments of all neighbouring states on the matter.
J R Lobo MLA and Deputy commissioner A B Ibrahim were among those present at the meeting.