Port Blair, Sept 18: Mr. Kuldeeep Rai Sharma, Member of Parliament, A&N Islands has requested the Secretary (Fisheries), A&N Administration to get urgent repair of existing cold storage of 20 ton capacity at Hut Bay and also to initiate process for enhancing cold storage capacity of 50 ton at Hut Bay for the welfare of the fishermen community of Little Andaman.
He informed that the fishermen community of Hut Bay reported the matter to the concerned authorities from time to time about non-functional of existing cold storage of 20 ton capacity at Hut Bay in which they said that due to prolong use of existing machineries installed way back in 1990 while set up, these cold storage getting out of order and happening frequent repairs from time to time.
As of now, the cold storage is completely shut down since lockdown due to requirement of major repairs to bring into functional. This is causing grate difficulties for the fishermen to keep their fish produces in the cold storage for selling/exporting fish which is only the source of income for their livelihood since their livelihood already affected due to lockdown in the wake of on-going COVID-19 pandemic.
Hence, the Member of Parliament requested the Administration that the existing 20 ton capacity cold storage at Hut Bay may be got repaired urgently to give relief for the livelihood of the fishermen for storing their fish produces till a permanent solution is sorted out. He also further suggested to initiate the process to get the sanction for setting up of 50 ton capacity of cold storage at Hut Bay for the welfare of the fishermen residing in the Little Andaman since the existing 20 ton cold storage capacity of fish do not meet the overall requirement of fishermen community of Little Andaman.