Fishworkers plan nation-wide protest http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/fishworkers-plan-nationwide-protest/article5212462.ece STAFF REPORTER Against policies of Centre, 10 littoral States
Members of the fishing community will stage nation-wide protests under the banner of the National Fishworkers Forum (NFF) in October and November, against the “anti-fishing community policies of the Central and the ten littoral State governments.” At a press meet here on Monday, NFF secretary T. Peter said almost all coastal or marine-based development projects announced by the Union and State governments were harmful to the interests of the traditional fishing communities. The hydrofoil project announced by the Kerala government would affect thousands of sea-faring fishermen indulging in pelagic fishing. He said a distance of 12 nautical miles from the coast was an area where fishermen enjoyed exclusive rights in fishing. This space should not be shared with tourism and coastal shipping sectors. Such opening up of the coastal waters would harm the country’s security, he said. The fishing community was anxious about the proposal to convert the operations of the Kerala Maritime Board on a build-operate-transfer and private-public-partnership basis. Such moves would bring coastal areas and ports under the control of domestic and foreign monopolists. Mr. Peter said that the fishing community was being totally ignored by the authorities. A long-standing demand for a separate Union Ministry of Fisheries was being ignored. In the last Budget, the Kerala government had declared a marine ambulance project. So far there has been no progress. The demands to be raised during the agitation include protection of the customary rights of the fishing community, cancellation of permits for foreign trawlers to fish in Indian waters, Central assistance for all accidents in sea, rehabilitation of fishing community members living in sea erosion-prone areas by allocating 10 cents of land to each family, ensuring availability of kerosene at fair price for fishermen and strict ban on sea sand-mining. He said that during the second week of this month NFF leaders would meet the Prime Minister and submit a memorandum highlighting their demands. By month-end, they would submit memoranda to the Chief Ministers of all the 10 littoral States. A 101-hour dharna, under the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, would be staged in front of the Secretariat from November 4. The World Fishermen Day, falling on November 21, would be marked by demonstrations in the 10 States. The national conference of the NFF at Mumbai, from December 6 to 8, would decide the future course of action, Mr. Peter said. Federation leaders A. Andrews and P.P. John were present at the press meet. ** ------------------------------ *Object to sharing ‘exclusive rights’ with tourism sector* *Demand a separate Union fisheries ministry* ------------------------------ MORE IN: KERALA<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/> | NATIONAL <http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
