Udupi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is expected to attend in a massive Fishermen Convention to be held held on 21st November, 2017 Karwar in Uttara Kannada, said U R Sabhapathy, KPCC Chief Secretary, former MLA of Udupi and Karnataka State Fishermen Congress.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, October 19, he said that the national-level delegates and large number of party leaders will be present in the convention where more than 70,000 fishermen are expected to attend.

The main objective of the Fishermen Congress is to form a separate policy for fisheries. There is no separate Ministry for Fisheries in Central government while there are separate Fisheries Ministries in state. The fisheries department is under agricultural department in central government. There is no uniform policy at the national-level. Hence there has been lot of gap in communication between the state and the central government as well. The Fishermen Congress has urged the central government to form a separate ministry in the Union government which will be helpful to the community of fishermen in the country and various states, he said adding that the fishermen, irrespective of the fact if they are Hindus, Muslims or Christians, must be included into ST category considering their financial situation.

“This recommendation has been rejected by the union government in the past,” he said.
Speaking about the Karnataka State Fishermen Congress, he said that it has eight vice-presidents, seven general secretaries, a treasurer, five assistant secretaries, six secretaries, four organizing secretaries and 21 executive committee members.

District Fishermen Congress Committee has been formed in eight districts and the presidents are- Manoj S Karkera (Kundapura of Udupi district), Mohan Bengre (Mangaluru of D.K), Manjunath Bovi (Haveri), Manjunath Balappa Bheemakka (Dharwad rural), Malakappa Siddappa Jeratagi (Bijarpur), B. Lingayya (Mandya) and Basavarajappa R(Davanagere).

The Fisheries Minister of the State Pramod Madhawaraj is the Member of the State Fishermen Congress Committee.
Keshav Kundar Vice President, Rama M Mogera Bhatkal, Sarala kanchan, Udupi, Shekar Suvarna Mangaluru Vice Presidents were present during the press meet.