Orange safety code for fishing boats in Gujarat

A fisheries department official told Khaleej Times that while bio-metric cards were being prepared for 134,000 gill-netters, the colour code would help the Coast Guard and Marine Police in identifying suspect vessels as also rescue the fishermen during natural calamities . The poor among the boatmen have begun displaying orange clothes or plastic sheets on their vessels to avoid the expenditure of painting their boats but the state administration has said that licences of those who do not follow the colour code will be cancelled.

According to Fisheries Minister Dilip Sanghani, some 350 Gujarat fishermen were still languishing in jails in Pakistan even after the release of 736 boatmen in the past two years.

mahesh@khaleejtimes.com