Subsidies to fishermen will be given soon: President

President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has said that subsidies to fishermen will be given within a few days.

The President was addressing the people of Th. Hirilandhoo during his visit to Thaa atoll.

He said that the government will make efforts to provide fish at better prices, and increase the promotion of line fishing in other countries.

“What requires most attention right now is providing privileges to fishermen and farmers; as I have said before, subsidies to fishermen will be given soon,” the President said.

Referring to Aasandha, the President said that the government has no intention of ceasing the scheme, but it needs to be revised. An end has to be brought to the fact that certain groups of people benefit from Aasandha more than others.

“There are several things to be revised in relation to Aasandha. Certain people - a small group of people - are receiving great benefits from the scheme; benefits which can’t even be compared with how much Aasandha benefits citizens. You would have heard by now, the only two private clinics in Male’ have received Rf 9m in the past two months. Similarly, 150,000 out of the 300,000 population of the country were sick during the past two months, and sought treatment at the hospital. These numbers are not realistic. This shows that this money is going to the wrong hands,” the President said.

The President said that people may have different political viewpoints, but this should not be a reason for division in the society. Unless ties are not strengthened between individual people and families, there will be no gain or development for families or the country.

“I ask you to work towards resolving such issues between family members. I know that family relations are being affected by politics. There is no family that hasn’t been affected by the political divisions. This exists even in my own family. So I ask everybody to work together to overcome this. Otherwise we will lose out in the end,” the President said.

The President assured that the allowances given to the elderly and single mothers will not be ceased. These payments will be facilitated by reducing other expenses from the government budget, and the President will monitor closely that this is done.