John Wilbert & Roopa Lall
Port Blair, Apr 09: Even after three days of the incident at high sea, which almost killed these four poor fishermen, no one came to help of assist them or listen to their grievances, the fishermen claim.
Talking exclusively with Andaman Sheekha Mr. Tata Rao, one of the fishermen mentioned that Saturday night was a nightmarish night for them, when they thought they will surely die at high sea.
According to them on Saturday night after fishing they had their dinner on the dinghy. When they were sleeping putting signal lights on their dinghy, suddenly from nowhere a big ship came and hit their dinghy. They were nearly 18 KM away from Shaheed Dweep when this incident occurred.
According to Mr. Tata Rao, the dinghy broke into pieces and sank while all the four people onboard the dinghy suffered injuries. One of them, suffered head injuries, others suffered injuries all over body, hands and legs.
“Anyhow we managed to float with the help of an Ice Box, that we were carrying in our dinghy. Some of us left hope for surviving but I kept on giving them hope that we will be rescued in the morning,” he said.
Next day at around 7 AM when they noticed a fishing boat approaching them, they breathed a sigh of relief.
But now these fishermen are feeling deeply disappointed seeing the response of Administration towards this case. The poor and injured fishermen claim that they are getting no support from anyone. “It’s been more than two days but no one from Police, Fisheries Department or political party has come to listen to our problems,” he said.
The police is investigating the case and will eventually find out, which ship had actually hit them but till then isn’t it the duty of Administration to reach out to these poor and injured fishermen and provide some support. One wonders why we have departments like Fisheries and Social Welfare when in such cases, no one comes to show even support to poor people. When contacted the Director Fisheries however claimed that when he got information, the department intimated the matter to police and the department took these fishermen to hospital and police station.
“In future also, whatever is possible within rule, we will help these fishermen. There are many schemes under which these fishermen can be extended help. The Fisheries Department will surely support them,” he said.
