Monetary assistance of ₹3.96 crore given to fishermen who lost their boats to Sri Lankan Navy
Speaking to the press, he said that ₹8 lakh each was given to 48 mechanised boat fishermen and ₹2 lakh each to six country boat fishermen.
The timely measure by Chief Minister M. K. Stalin to assist the grieving fishermen and their families over their loss of livelihood received a huge appreciation from the fisherfolk community, he added.
'DMK government has revised the assistance amount three times in the last four years. Due to this, ₹5 lakh which was initially given was increased to ₹6 lakh and now we give ₹8 lakh,' he added.
Answering a question regarding the need of a sea ambulance to adhere to the need of fishermen in emergency situations while fishing, he said that it was already discussed in the Assembly.
'As ₹1,000 crore was allocated for the district to carry out various projects, this would also be taken up for implementation,' he assured.
Jesu Raja, a fishermen leader, said that the assistance by the Tamil Nadu government was an important and timely assistance for the families of fishermen who have lost their boats.
District Collector Simranjeet Singh Kahlon was also present during the event.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
30 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Punjab Assembly tables draft Anti-Sacrilege Bill which mandates strict penalties, including life imprisonment
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday tabled in the state Assembly the draft Punjab Prevention of Offences Against Holy Scripture(s) Bill, 2025, also known as the Anti-Sacrilege Bill, which mandates enhanced penalties, including life imprisonment, for those convicted of sacrilege-related crimes. After the Bill was tabled, Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa sought that the debate on the draft Bill should take place on Tuesday as they need time for the same. The Speaker then announced that the Bill will be debated on Tuesday. The Bill covers sacrilege against sacred books including the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Bhagavad Gita, Holy Bible, and Quran Sharif, among others. Under the proposed law, any person found guilty of sacrilege may face imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life. Those attempting the offence may be sentenced to three to five years, while individuals found abetting the crime will be punished in accordance with the offence committed. 'With the enactment of this law, the State seeks to further strengthen the ethos of communal harmony, brotherhood, peace, and amity. It will also act as a strong deterrent against anti-social and anti-national activities by ensuring severe punishment for perpetrators of this heinous crime,' a government statement said. It added that no specific legislation existed that directly addressed offences against holy granths, often resulting in leniency or evasion of serious action by the culprits. This new Act aims to fill that legal void by criminalising and prescribing punishments for acts of sacrilege across all sects and faiths. The government had summoned a special session of Vidhan Sabha to table the Bill following protests by Gurjeet Singh Khalsa, a Patiala native who has been protesting atop a telecom tower seeking stricter legislation over sacrilege involving holy books. The Cabinet note stated that there have been numerous incidents in the past involving the sacrilege of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and other revered books, deeply wounding public sentiment and causing unrest in society. While sections 298, 299, and 300 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) address such issues, they do not prescribe sufficiently stringent penalties to serve as an effective deterrent. Considering the gravity of such offences and the imperative to preserve communal harmony and religious sanctity, the Cabinet found it necessary to introduce state-specific legislation, it said.
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
When police turn killers, law and order dies first
Postmortem examination found 44 external injuries, besides cigarette burns, on his body. Every blow Ajith took from the policemen, now facing murder charges in a CBI inquiry, has left the Tamil Nadu police and the govt bruised. If they fester long enough to remain a discussion point during the assembly election early next year, DMK will have to pay a price (ask Edappadi Palaniswami how the custodial deaths of P Jayaraj and his son J Bennix in 2020 hurt AIADMK's electoral prospects the following year). Malathi was trembling when she stepped into the Thiruppuvanam police station in Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu on the night of June 27. Her 27-year-old son Ajith Kumar, a guard at their village temple, was detained there on charges (not yet officially framed) of stealing some jewellery that a visitor had allegedly kept in her car, which she had asked him to park. Malathi saw her son shirtless and bruised, barely able to speak. She didn't believe that her son would steal, yet she told him to return the jewellery if he had taken it. 'I didn't steal anything, amma,' he told her. The next day, Ajith Kumar was dead. PMK leader K Anbumani says there were 28 custodial deaths – and zero convictions – in the past four years of DMK govt. I haven't fact-checked this statement, but I won't be surprised if he is right. Police atrocity is a global crime, and its socio-political impact is steeped in history. The US has a bloody history of police violence, often fed and fuelled by racism. Incidents such as the police torture of Rodney King in 1991 led to the Los Angeles riots the following year when the police officers who were caught on tape beating the black man for alleged drunk driving walked free. The 'Black Uprising' was so fresh in public memory that it likely influenced the jury that found OJ Simpson not guilty of killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her friend Ron Goldman in 1994. Later, the killings of Trayvon Martin, Rekia Boyd in 2012, and Michael Brown and Eric Garner in 2014 led to the Black Lives Matter movement. In India, police have found underprivileged people easier targets to train their lathis and, in some cases, guns. Despite repeated observations of the Supreme Court of India that the authorities should show zero tolerance towards police high-handedness, men – and some women – in khaki continue to torture suspects, sometimes with zero evidence. India is yet to ratify the UN Convention Against Torture, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1984. I shed no tears for rapists who take a bullet or two in their head – or hardened criminals who get away with broken limbs after those ubiquitous falls in the slippery bathrooms of our police stations. But when police unleash violence on someone for presumed guilt, those wielding the lathis deserve more than a rap on the knuckles. A common justification by these sadists is 'pressure from the top' to extract a confession. Such 'tough' men in khaki lack the guts to take on the erring mighty; they are also often the first ones to prostrate at the political masters' feet. If our police brass and policy makers are earnest in making policing less brutal and more efficient, a good place to start would be this 75-year-old paper in the American Journal of Police Science titled 'Police Discipline', written by G Douglas Gourley (An officer of LAPD that was later responsible for the Rodney King incident). The author says 'discipline' often carries a connotation of arbitrary and severe enforcement of rules, which is a narrow conception. His prescription for police forces: indoctrination of a generic discipline and ethics through rounded training, proper organizational structure and longer tenures of police administrators.
Indian Express
7 hours ago
- Indian Express
Eye on 2027 polls, Punjab CM Mann govt to repair 20,000 km of rural roads
The Punjab government has launched a massive rural road repair and upgradation drive, covering more than 20,000 km of link roads across the state, the first such exercise in nearly seven years. Coming ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections, the project is being funded primarily through loans, with the Centre's Rural Development Fund (RDF), pending for four years, forcing the state to seek alternative sources. The total project outlay is Rs 3,436 crore. With the Centre holding back an estimated Rs 10,000 crore in RDF dues, the government has turned to NABARD and other sources to fund this crucial infrastructure overhaul. According to a senior government official, the work is strategically timed to be completed by late 2026, ahead of the Assembly elections. 'The government wants visible development. Freshly paved rural roads just before the polls will boost the perception of progress,' the official said. Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, in a public address last week, said the state would invest Rs 3,500 crore to repair 19,000 km of rural roads and accused the Centre of stalling the RDF, which he said could have funded the entire rural road revamp. Currently, tenders have been floated for the first major leg of the work , about 5,672 km of link roads, with allotments scheduled in phases until mid-August. In addition to repairing link roads, the Punjab government has set aside funds for several other key infrastructure works. It will spend Rs 100 crore on the repair of 21 roads and bridges through NABARD's Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF). Another Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated from the state's consolidated fund to upgrade 1,349 km of plan roads maintained by the Public Works Department (PWD). The government will also spend Rs 261 crore to improve 77 link roads commonly used for mining and sand transportation, with funding coming from the Centre's Special Assistance and market committees. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, 736 km of rural roads are also being upgraded with Rs 671 crore sanctioned by the Centre. While the state government is projecting this drive as a game-changing investment in rural infrastructure, officials acknowledge that reliance on borrowed funds was a last resort in the face of the prolonged RDF deadlock. With less than two years left for the next elections, the AAP government is hoping the visibility of road construction will translate into political goodwill — especially in the rural heartland where connectivity is directly tied to agricultural activity and daily life. During the Assembly session in March this year, public works minister Harbhajan Singh had blamed their shabby state on the delay by the Centre in releasing RDF.
