Fishing activities in Digha to commence from June 15; hotels may open on 30th

Kolkata: Fishing activities in Digha sea is set to resume from June 15 after a hiatus of nearly three months due to the nationwide lockdown.

Hoteliers in Digha, however, is still undecided on when they should open hotels for visitors. Senior officials of the district administration held a meeting with the fishermen's association in Digha and finalised resumption fishing activities in full swing .

"The trawlers will start venturing into the deep sea for fishing activities from June 15. The market for auction and bulk selling of fishes in Digha will also start functioning on that very day. Social distancing norms will be maintained in the best possible during auction and bulk selling . Sanitisation of the markets are going on in full swing," said Akhil Giri, Vice Chairman of Digha Sankarpur Development Authority, adding that the state government now wants the fishermen across the state should return to their normal work schedule.

80 per cent of the people involved in fishing in sea are local fishermen while 20 percent come from parts of Odisha. "There will be screening of the fishermen who will be coming from Odisha and the district administration in co ordination with the police will make arrangements," added Giri. Fishing in river has already started in Odisha and at Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas.

When it comes to the gradual opening of tourism sector one or two hotels have tried to open in early June but there was objection from the local people consequently they were compelled to close down.

A tentative date for June 30 has been fixed for opening up hotels in Digha. There are 1,000 odd hotels in Digha that are closed since lockdown. "We will conduct a detail meeting sometime in the coming week to decide on the standard operating procedure for opening up hotels," said an official of Digha Sankarpur Hoteliers Association.

Hotels in Mandarmani have already decided to open for tourists from Monday allowing 50 per cent occupancy. There will be thermal gun for checking body temperature of tourists before allowing l entry. They should be wearing masks.

"We will urge the visitors not to bring children below 10 years and senior citizens above 65 years considering their high risk factor of getting affected by COVID," said Souvik Roy, of United Forum of National Tourism.