MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday refused to direct the state government to enhance the compensation provided to marine fishermen during the fishing ban period in Tamil Nadu, observing that the matter falls under the policy domain of the government.
Disposing of a PIL filed seeking directions to enhance the relief, a bench of justices C V Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel opined that though the petitioner espoused a noble cause, it is entirely a policy decision.
Various factors, such as the number of fishermen, their eligibility, whether they registered themselves, etc have to be considered, for which only the state is competent and not the court, the judges added.
Pointing out that the ban period for the current year was already over, the judges said an appropriate decision might be taken by the government for the next year.
Advocate and state co-ordinator of the fishermen wing of Naam Tamilar Katchi, G Thirumurugan, stated in his petition that the state government imposes a 61-day fishing ban period from April 15 to June 14 to facilitate breeding and spawning of fish species.
Similarly, the fishing vessels operating from the Arabian Sea coast of Kanniyakumari are subjected to a separate statutory fishing ban period from June 1 to July 31, with other west coast regions like Kerala, he added.
At present, the state pays Rs 8,000 as relief amount to fishermen for the entire ban period of 61 days. This would not be sufficient even to cover the food and educational expenses of fishermen’s families for the two months, he pointed out.
Citing that other coastal states in India pay higher compensation and the ruling TVK, in its election manifesto, had promised to enhance the relief assistance, he sought the above relief.