People's Democracy

        Ban Foreign Trawlers In Our Waters

Fisheries Workers Demand Agricultural Minister

A DELEGATION of the All India Fishers and Fisheries Workers’ Federation met the union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on July 13, 2004 and presented a memorandum on the demands of the lakhs of fishers and fisheries’ workers in the country. Pointing out that the country was losing huge amounts of foreign exchange because of the operation of foreign trawlers in the territorial waters of the country, the delegation demanded that foreign trawlers should be banned and the licenses issued should be cancelled.

It has also drawn the attention of the minister to the pathetic living and working conditions of the fishers and fisheries workers and demanded that a comprehensive legislation should be enacted providing job security, minimum wages, safety, social security, maternity benefits, housing facilities, insurance and compensation to the fishers and fisheries workers.

The delegation brought to the notice of the minister the problems of the fishers who inadvertently cross over into the waters of other countries and requested him to take immediate measures to sort out this problem. It demanded that National Identity Cards should be issued to all fishers who go out fishing in sea or rivers near international waters.

Supply of diesel and kerosene at subsided rates, provision of old age pension, protection of migrant fisheries workers, education facilities for the children of fishers and fisheries workers, development of fish markets, fishing harbours, cold storage facilities, construction and maintenance of protective walls against sea erosion, were also demanded.

The delegation requested that a single ministry should deal with all the aspects of the fishing industry, a tripartite all India industrial committee should be formed on fishing and that the Government of India should allot more funds for the overall development of the fishing industry. The importance of protecting the water bodies belonging to the central and state governments was emphasised and the delegation demanded that the government water bodies should be given for fishing activities only to the fishers’ cooperatives.

The minister informed about the existing welfare benefits, the efforts that were being made to supply diesel and kerosene at cheap rates. He told that the joint venture with Dragon fisheries, which has 8 vessels at present, will be over soon and assured that discussion will be held on how to control illegal fishing operations by foreign vessels. He also assured that efforts will be made to increase the allocations of funds to the fishing industry.

The delegation comprised of Pitabasan Das, convenor of the Federation, M K Pandhe, president of CITU, Mahboob Zahidi, CPI(M) Member of Lok Sabha, M M Lawrence and Hemalata from CITU, Balakrishna from Andhra Pradesh, V V Sasneendran from Kerala, Karunanidhi from Tamil Nadu and Mohan Lal Das and Shyamal Das from Tripura. (INN)