Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry Anitha R. Radhakrishnan on Wednesday announced the formation of an exclusive bank for fishermen in the State.
Speaking during the debate on the demand for grants for the Fisheries Department in the Assembly, he said it would be fashioned on the primary agricultural bank. “Chief Minister M.K. Stalin is very particular that steps should be taken to improve the lives of the fishermen. A bank has been a long-pending demand of lakhs of fishermen in the State,” he said.
Sources in the department explained that fishermen often require loans for operational expenditure and for purchasing engines and nets. However, nationalised banks and other financial institutions do not provide loans to them, which has forced them to depend on private lenders.
An official source said a committee had been constituted to study the feasibility of forming fisheries cooperative credit societies, and its first meeting had also been held. It decided to identify financial institutions that would be the backbone of the bank, observe a good working viable primary agricultural cooperative bank as a model and select fishermen’s cooperative societies that can be converted into fisheries cooperative credit societies.
