Boat owners object to photographing crafts by officials

As a result, the inspection of the boats by officials was affected.

As the 61-day ban period for the east coast, which commenced on April 14, is coming to an end on June 14, officials of the fisheries department as part of their annual exercise reached the fishing harbour to inspect the boats and their specifications. Only if the details are found to be correct, fishing tokens and diesel subsidy books would be given to the boat owners for the upcoming season.

During the inspection on Saturday, 54 officials, split into 18 teams, checked the length and breadth of the boats and checked whether the measurements coincided with the prescribed measurements.

The teams also checked the horse power of the engines fitted in the boats to find out if there are any violations.

When officials found certain breaches in the boats they tried to take photographs in their mobile phones as proof. But the boat owners objected to this and prevented the teams from clicking pictures.

Following this, heated arguments broke out between the boat owners and the fisheries department officials which triggered tension in the fishing harbour.

Then the officials left that spot and continued inspecting the other boats. Later, the fishermen insisted the fisheries department officials not to cancel the permits and the diesel books issued to them citing minor violations. It is still uncertain whether the officials would issue permits and diesel books to those owners in whose boats violations were detected for the fresh season, which will commence from next week.