A good decade after it was carved out from erstwhile undivided Dakshina Kannada district, state government has approved the setting up of office of deputy director, department of fisheries to Udupi district. Prior to this government order dated February 6, office of deputy director based in Mangaluru was handling all state sector programmes of the department in the district, noted minister for fisheries and youth empowerment and sports Pramod Madhwaraj. With a coastline of 95-kms, Udupi is one among the three coastal districts in Karnataka, Dakshina Kannada and Uttara Kannada being the other two. Coastal fishing is one of the main occupation of people of the district, noted Pramod, who is also the district in-charge minister, adding that an estimated 1,19,953 people are involved in this activity either directly or otherwise. The district has two major fishing harbours, six fish landing centres and 22 coastal landing centres. The district has 1,940 mechanised boats, 3,996 motorised boats and 1,871 traditional boats. The demand for a separate office of deputy director for the department has been a long standing one, Pramod said adding having this office in Udupi itself will help the department attend to basic needs of fishermen on a relatively quicker basis. It will also facilitate the state government to provide better infrastructure facilities to help the department reach out to the stakeholders. The new office of deputy director as per the GO signed by Rashmi Shivshankar Pola, under-secretary (fisheries), department of animal husbandry and fisheries, will have one deputy director, one each office superintendent, first and second division assistants, one assistant director (grade – 2), one FDA/SDA, typist, group D attached to the assistant director, one vehicle drive and a group D employee. These employees have been drawn from other offices of the department.
2017 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.