The Andhra Pradesh government on November 21 released ₹161.86 crore towards the fourth tranche of compensation to the fishermen who had lost their livelihood due to the pipeline work of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the Konaseema and Kakinada districts.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy released the amount at his camp office, at Tadepalli, near here. The ONGC is footing the compensation bill.
The compensation, which was for the six-month period from January to June this year, was directly credited into the bank accounts of 23,458 fishermen families of both the districts. Each family would get ₹11,500 per month. With this, the total amount paid to the fishermen so far was ₹485 crore.
The ONGC pipeline project impacted the livelihood of the fishermen, who included single women. Fishing in the vicinity of the project had been banned as the ONGC was laying a 20-inch pipe for 22 km from an offshore platform to its onshore plant at Mallavaram village, passing through the mouth of the Gowthami river, to develop the KG-DWN-98/2 block. The ONGC had begun the project on January 28, 2022.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy was supposed to release the compensation at a programme at Mambattu village of Tada mandal in Tirupati district after laying the stone for a fish landing centre at Rayadaruvu village of Vakadu mandal. The programme was, however, postponed due to heavy rains there.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy accused former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu of neglecting the welfare of the fishermen during his term.
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said his government first paid fishermen the ₹78-crore that had been kept pending by the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation since 2012, and later recovered it from the company.
Even in the case of ONGC, the government released the amount first to the fishermen and recovered it from the company later, the Chief Minister said, and thanked the ONGC management for extending support to the fishermen.
Compensation to Vizag boat owners
The Chief Minister said the government took steps to extend financial help to the boat owners who had lost their boats in the fire accident at the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour. Orders were issued to the officials to handover the cheques immediately to the fishermen families, he said, adding that all affected fishermen would receive 80% compensation on the value of boats destroyed.
Fisheries Commissioner Kannababu, who virtually participated in the programme, informed the Chief Minister that Andhra Pradesh bagged the ‘Best Fisheries State Award’. He said the officials concerned went to Gujarat to receive it at a specially arranged function.
Fisheries Minister S. Appla Raju and senior officials were among those who attended the programme.
Kakinada and Konaseema district Collectors Kritika Shukla and Himanshu Shukla respectively participated in the programme virtually.
