‘The Centre is going ahead with its policy to hand over deep sea fishing segment to monopolies’
‘The Centre is going ahead with its policy to hand over deep sea fishing segment to monopolies’
Owners of traditional fishing canoes as well as larger vessels will meet at the Thoppumpady Fisheries Harbour on Tuesday to discuss what the Fisheries Co-ordination Committee, representing vessel owners, described as a crisis in the making as a result of the Centre’s proposed policies.
The Union government is going ahead with its policy to hand over the deep sea fishing segment to monopolies, said a spokesman of the co-ordination committee.
The meeting will also discuss the Indian Navy’s claim that it was not responsible for the recent incident in which a fisherman was shot at. The Navy’s stand indicated that fishermen’s lives as well as their source of livelihood were in jeopardy, the committee said.
Fishers had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the incident on September 7 in which a fisherman from Pallithode in Alappuzha district was hit by a shell from a firearm. According to fishers, the shell that hit the fisherman, Sebastian, was found inside the modified traditional canoe Al-Rehman 1. The fishers requested the Prime Minister to order an inquiry into the incident and establish a system to ensure that such incidents did not recur.
The committee will meet in Alappuzha on Sunday before the meet of the general body in Kochi at the Longline and Gillnet Boat Owners’ Association Hall.
