Mangaluru : Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader said subsidy for the purchase of kerosene by fishermen will be directly transferred to their bank accounts through RTGS, after they submit the bill and the new system will come into effect soon after fishing season starts from August 1.

Speaking to media persons here on Friday, he said the shortage of subsidised kerosene was pushing the traditional fishing sector of the coastal districts into crisis every year. To find a permanent solution to the problem, the state government has decided to credit the subsidy amount to the bank accounts of fishermen, he said.

Accordingly, the fishermen will have to purchase kerosene in the open market. At present, the government is supplying 228 litres of kerosene at the rate of Rs 25 per litre to each boat per month. After the fishing season starts, the fishermen will have to buy the sanctioned quota of kerosene from the open market and produce the bill to get the subsidy.

The subsidy outgo for subsidised kerosene for the financial year 2017-18 is around Rs 60 crore, he noted.

The traditional fishing sector is totally dependent on kerosene as fuel for vessels, he said.

“We were distributing kerosene through public distribution system. But the central government has directed the state governments not to divert the kerosene meant for public distribution system for other purposes. Hence, the government has decided to change the system and allow fishermen to purchase white kerosene from open market and get the subsidy amount,” the minister said.

Khader said that all the applications submitted for ration cards have been received online by the department which in turn has sent them to Janasnehi Kendras in each Gram Panchayat. The village assistants will verify the checklist details like Aadhaar card numbers of the applicants, family members and income criteria of the applicants. Once, he verifies and submits the records back to Janasnehi Kendras, the ration cards will be generated and sent to the applicants address through post,
he explained.

Khader welcomed the move of the state government to waive the crop loans borrowed from cooperative banks. The chief minister has never stated that the crop loans will not be waived by the government. Instead, he has demanded the Centre to waive the loans borrowed from nationalised banks. Having unable to digest the success of the Congress-led government in waiving the crops loan, the BJP has brought out the issue of MLC Govindaraj’s diary once again, he charged.