VISAKHAPATNAM: Following the fire that broke out at the Visakhapatnam fishing harbour late night on Sunday, Andhra Pradesh Fisheries Minister Seediri Appalaraju said that the Chief Minister has decided to give 80 per cent of the total cost of the boat directly as compensation to every boat owner who lost their boat.
“To all these affected families, 80 per cent of the total cost of the boat will be directly given as compensation to every boat owner who lost their boat. That is a decision taken by the CM. This is a very generous decision. Nowhere in India, no leader across the world will respond like this.” Seediri Appalaraju said speaking to ANI on Monday.
Speaking about the accident, the Fisheries Minister said that 36 boates were fully burnt and nine were partially damaged.
“This was an unprecedented accident. Some local youths were behind these attacks. Unfortunately, 36 boats were fully burnt and nine boats were partially damaged,” Appalaraju said.
On the ongoing efforts to modernise the harbour the Fisheries Minister said, “We sanctioned around Rs 150 Crores to modernise this harbour, work is going on. This harbour was made decades back. Till now no government has taken care of this.”
The Minister said that effort is on to increase one or two more jetties so that more boats can be anchored. “Our government under the leadership sanctioned the money for modernisation. Works are going on to increase the space, to increase one or two more jetties here so that more boats can be anchored here,” he said. The blaze reportedly started on one of the boats where a group of individuals were allegedly partying, according to a police official.
“One of the ships caught fire where some boys were there late at night; probably they were all partying. Luckily, the other boatmen came and deanchored that ship and let it off into the sea,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Law and Order Ravi Shankar said.”The ship had full tanker diesel and gas cylinders so the fire had a multiplier effect and it drifted on to the other ships that were parked at the jetty,” he said. The situation was finally brought under control with the assistance of the Navy ship Sahara.
“Towards the end, the Navy ship Sahara also came and assisted us and because of them, we got the fire under control,” the ADGP added. (ANI)