The Puducherry Department of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare has begun a physical verification drive of motorised and non-motorised fishing craft in the Union Territory (UT).
According to Deputy Director of Fisheries (Mechanisation) G. Rajendiran, the exercise follows an instruction from the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying to all the coastal States/UTs to complete physical verification of fishing vessels during the 2025 fishing ban period and to update the registry with ReALCRaft (Registration and Licensing of Fishing Craft) portal data accordingly. Further, it was directed to submit status and action-taken reports in this regard to the Ministry, he said.
As part of the drive, the Department of Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare carried out the annual physical verification of all motorised and non-motorised fishing boats, berthed at the Thengaithittu fishing harbour and 15 coastal villages in Puducherry.
A team led by Mohammed Ismail, Director of Fisheries, and Mr. Rajendiran had been constituted to carry out the inspection. During the exercise, registered boat owners submitted their documents for verification. With respect to the registered fishing boats not produced before physical verification, a separate enquiry will be made, and their registration will be continued or deleted based on the enquiry report.
The second phase of the exercise will cover mechanised fishing boats in Puducherry. Similar physical verification exercises will be launched in the outlying region of Karaikal shortly, Mr. Rajendiran added.