Jagan Orders Probe into Fire Mishap in Visakha Harbour

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has ordered a probe into Sunday night’s fire mishap at Visakhapatnam fishing harbour. Nearly 40 mechanised fishing boats were gutted and nine suffered partial damage.

The CM announced a compensation of 80 per cent of the value of each boat that was completely gutted.

He took stock of the developments at a meeting with the CMO officials on Monday. Based on his instructions, fisheries minister Seediri Appalaraju and Visakhapatnam collector A. Mallikarjuna visited the harbour. They found that 36 boats were completely gutted while nine suffered partial damage.

The CM said has asked officials to extend all help to enable them lead a normal life and resume their work.

The Chief Minister said it would be unfair to ignore the plight of the affected fishermen by showing the reasons like the boats were not insured. He underlined the importance on the part of the officials to motivate the fishermen to take insurance coverage for their fishing boats in future as it would help them get compensation for the loss.

Meanwhile, officials informed the CM that, based on a preliminary assessment, the loss was in the range of Rs.12 crore.