MALPE (UDUPI DISTRICT): It has been 88 days since seven fishermen on board the boat Suvarna Thribhuja went missing from Malpe port. On Wednesday, families of two of the missing fishermen threatened to boycott the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Also, one of the families urged the community to also boycott the polls. At a meeting convened by deep sea fishermen at Malpe on Wednesday to resolve the ongoing light fishing issue, Nithyananda Kotian, younger brother of Chandrashekar Kotian, who was aboard the missing boat, made an appeal to the Deep Sea Fishermen Association to boycott the polls so that both the State and Central governments will take more steps to trace the missing fishermen. Chandrashekar was also the owner of the boat.
Similarly, family members of Damodhar Salian, another missing fisherman, had earlier announced that they were boycotting the LS polls. Gangadhar Salian, brother of Damodhar, has expressed dismay over the state and Central governments failing to trace the missing fishermen. While two of the missing fishermen are from Udupi district, the remaining five are from Uttara Kannada district.