Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has allocated Rs 161.86 crore for 23,458 fishermen families toppled by the ONGC pipelines in the districts of BR Ambedkar and Konaseema. He announced that an amount of Rs 69,000 each would be credited into their accounts directly at the rate of Rs 11,500 per month for 6 months.
This is the 5th proportion of the financial redress being paid to families that have lost their sustenance because of the laying of ONGC pipelines. So far, an aggregate of Rs 647.44 crore was distributed by the ruling government, towards financial aid for the ousted families. Furnishing the amount from the camp office, Jagan said, “The ONGC and the authorities have become bold in elaborating the financial aid to the pseud fishermen families. The decision taken by the government would be an advantage for 16,408 and 7,050 families in Ambedkar, Konaseema and Kakinada districts. We also repaid Rs 78 crore owed by the Gujarat state petroleum corporation at the time of TDP rule, which had ignored more than 16,000 affected fishermen families.”
Jagan added, “So far, Rs 538 crore has been paid to more than 1,07 lakh families in the wake of the YSR Matsyakara Bharosa as they couldn’t go fishing during the prohibited period between April 15- June15. The directorate has also improved the financial aid under the scheme from Rs 4,000 in TD term to Rs 11,000 in an atypical method post YSRC came to power. The subsidy on diesel was also raised to Rs 9 per litre from Rs 6. A sum of Rs 130 crore was paid on Rs 20,000 boats.”
The government has also paid Rs 3,500 crore in subsidy benefiting 40,850 families of aqua farmers, as they are supplied electricity at Rs 1.50 paise per unit. Rs 4,913 crore was invested on these schemes as of now.