Vijayawada: Minister for mines, geology and excise Kollu Ravindraon Sunday stated that no fisherman should suffer due to poverty and he will persuade the government to establish special centres to provide better training to fishermen's children.
He sought to encourage unity among the fishermen community to achieve development. The minister participated in a meeting of the fishermen's associations organised under the leadership of former MP Mopidevi Venkataramana at Vijayawada on Sunday. He expressed happiness about the decision of former MP Mopidevi Venkataramana to join the Telugu Desam Party.
Minister Ravindra mentioned that there is a significant amount of poverty in fishermen community, and we must take initiatives to eradicate it completely. He recalled that in the past, former minister Nadakuditi Narasimha Rao took multiple actions for the development of fishermen and the establishment of special residential schools for fishermen students was a result of his efforts. He recalled that the credit for immediately approving the demand for awarding pensions to fishermen at the age of 50 in the past goes to Chandrababu Naidu.
Minister Ravidnra said, “Despite thousands of crores worth of schemes from the central and state governments, we are unable to utilise them. We are the ones who fish, but do we even have a single processing unit in our name? Isn't this evidence of our backwardness? I take the responsibility to secure as much funds as possible for our community from the central government in the next five years. Let's also initiate efforts to excel in education and jobs. I will persuade the government to establish special centres to provide better training to our children,” stated the minister.
Former MLC Karri Padma and other leaders participated in the programme.
