Fisheries debt relief panel for Kerala soon

Economy Bureau
Posted: Thursday, Jan 01, 2009 at 0157 hrs IST
Updated: Thursday, Jan 01, 2009 at 0157 hrs IST

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Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Cabinet, which met on Wednesday, has decided to expediate Fisheries Debt Relief Commission, in accordance to the Act it had passed early this year. The commission, envisaged to recommend relief measures to fishermen in distress due to indebtedness, is similar in character to the Farmer Debt relief Commission formed last year.

"It will be a five-member commission," Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said.

Some of the members are former Kerala High Court Justice Dineshan (Chairman), Dr Purushan Kootayi, Basheer and P Raju, the state Cabinet has decided.

The commission is to start off with an outlay of Rs 10 crore. Opposition benches in the Assembly had pointed out that this amount was grossly not sufficient to fulfill the commission's brief. The commission will have powers to recommend to the government loan waiver, interest waiver and loan re-scheduling to help indebted fishermen. It will also have powers to negotiate with private money lenders to fix the debt in individual cases at fair levels, since the practice of charging interest at very exorbitant rates is widely prevalent among the private money lenders.

"Indebtedness was a major issue among the fishermen, who constitute one of the poorest communities in the state. They were also being ruthlessly exploited by private money lenders," state fisheries minister S Sarma said.

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