Rameswaram fishermen welcomed the financial package for deep-sea fishing but wanted the Centre and the State government to enhance the subsidy component. The scheme will take off only if the Central and State governments provided long-liners with maximum subsidy without insisting on any initial contribution from the fishers, said U. Arulanandham, a leader of the community. As the fishermen are accustomed to 24-hour fishing in the Palk Bay, they could persuaded to take to deep-sea fishing only if the governments stepped in with enhanced subsidy, fishermen said. The beneficiaries could be asked to bear a token amount, they add. Demonstrate benefits The government should first send a batch of fishermen to deep-sea fishing after offering them training, long liners and necessary fishing paraphernalia to demonstrate the benefits of deep-sea fishing, suggested Mr. Arulanandham. As most of them were lukewarm to the idea of deep-sea fishing and were in a position to just meet the expenses towards the voyage for multi-day fishing, the State fisheries department should make the scheme attractive, he said. Most fishermen who owned trawlers can raise a maximum of ?10 lakh, that too by forming a group, he said. The fishermen would require at least three years to completely phase out bottom-trawling, fishermen leaders P. Sesu Raja and N. J. Bose said. They suggested that the government should begin the construction of long liners immediately without expecting contributions from the beneficiaries. The State government’s 50% subsidy scheme, launched in 2013, failed as the fishermen could not raise the balance 50% even by forming a group or on behalf of cooperative societies, they said. Every year, the government invited applications but there were very few takers, they noted. Mr. M Ilango, chairman of the National Fisherfolk Forum (NFF), said if at all the government insisted on contributions from the beneficiaries, it should arrange them loans without collateral security.