State govt will help resolve kerosene release to fishermen: Khader

State Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U T Khader blamed the Centre for the toubles and issues faced by fishermen due to non-availability of subsidised kerosene oil.

Addressing the media here, the Minister said  that the centre has issued an order for a ban of kerosene except for cooking purposes.  The State government had written and had made an appeal to the centre requesting for a change in the said order, Khader said.

Khader said that the state government is working on making alternate measures to resolve the issue.

The Government would purchase kerosene from the open market  and distribute  to fishermen at subsidized rates, he said.

CM Siddaramaiah has provided  special grant of Rs 53 crores for this, and Rs 3.5 crore grant has been released for Udupi and DK districts.

The government will provide 300 litres of kerosene oil for  each of the 4,514 country boats in DK, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts, he added.