Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday reiterated that there is no dedicated ministry to address the problems of fishermen. During an interaction with the fishing community in Kerala's Kollam, Rahul repeated his promise of setting up a central ministry dedicated to fishermen of the country.
"Just like farmers farm the land, you farm the sea. Farmers have a Ministry in Delhi, you don't... First thing I'd do is have a Ministry dedicated to fishermen of India so that your issues can be defended & protected," he said.
The Congress leader also pulled the net with local fisherman in high sea in Kollam to get a taste of their life and understand the issues facing them. He even ventured into sea with some fishermen in their boat and spent nearly an hour with them before reaching the venue of interaction. Rahul is a Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad. Rahul is touring Kerala for the last two days.
Meanwhile, Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Giriraj Singh slammed Rahul Gandhi. "He should know that there is a fisheries department for which an investment of Rs 20,050 cr has been made by the Centre. In 70 years, work that couldn't be done by your 'Nanaji' and others, has been done by PM Modi," he said.
Earlier, Rahul during a visit to Puducherry had also spoken about the issue. He compared farmers with fishermen and promised to set up a separate ministry to address the issues concerning the fishermen. "The government passed 3 Bills against farmers, the backbone of a nation. You must be wondering why am I talking about farmers at meeting of fishermen. I consider you as farmers of sea. If farmers of land can have ministry in Delhi, why is that farmers of sea don't have the same," he had said.
Notably, the Modi government after the 2019 Lok Sabha election had set up the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying. The ministry was formed from the department of same name under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
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