[Reader-list] Fish workers to launch State-wide agitation

[T Peter]

*Fish workers to launch State-wide agitation *

*Date:01/05/2009* *URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2009/05/01/stories/2009050158570300.htm*
Special Correspondent

   *Call to implement loan waiver package *

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Accuses Centre of going back on

pre-poll promise

Secretariat dharna planned on May 25
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 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation
(KSMTF) is gearing up for a State-wide agitation against the government for
the failure to implement the loan waiver package for fish workers in the
State.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, KSMTF State president T.
Peter and district secretary Anto Elias said fish workers across the State
had been let down by the Centre’s move to exclude them from the agriculture
loan waiver package. They said it would be a heavy blow for the fishing
community which is already struggling under the impact of depleting fish
stocks and rising input costs.

“Many of us will be forced to beach the boats that were purchased with loans
from banks and private financial institutions. The rising cost of diesel and
kerosene adds to our burden,” Mr. Peter said. He alleged that the Union
government had gone back on its pre-election commitment to waive the loans
of fish workers. “The State government’s loan waiver scheme also could not
taken off beyond the constitution of a committee,” he said.

The federation said traditional fishermen were the worst affected by the
depletion of fish stocks due to the operation of foreign fishing vessels.
March planned

 Fish workers will take out a march to the office of the Accountant General
here on May 11 demanding steps to waive their loans. On May 25, they would
stage a dharna before the Government Secretariat. In the third phase of the
stir, a KSMTF delegation would submit a memorandum to the newly installed
government in New Delhi, highlighting their demands.
 *By Express News Service
01 May 2009 10:06:00 AM IST*
Fishermen to launch agitation

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fishermen under the banner of the Kerala Swathanthra
Matsya Thozhilali Federation will launch an agitation in protest against the
exclusion of fishermen in the State from the package announced by the Centre
to write off agricultural loans.
 Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, Federation state president
T.Peter said that the package would have been a relief to the fishermen who
had been facing misery following a decline in the catch.
 He said that the fishermen were forced to keep their vessels idle owing to
the shortage of fish in the sea. The foreign trawlers are using special nets
to catch fish in large quantities from the sea. The traditional fishermen
are finding it difficult to eke out a living in the current circumstances.
They do not get the catch even to meet the expense of diesel and kerosene
required for operating the boats. Peter said that Union Minister Sharad
Pawar had gone back on the assurance to write off the loans of fishermen
after the polling in the State.
  Peter said that the State Government’s fishermen’s debt relief scheme also
had not been implemented so far. No action, except constituting a committee
to implement the project, had been taken so far.
 The Federation would launch an agitation seeking to write off the debts of
fishermen  from May 11.
The workers take out a march to the AG’s Office here on May 11.
 A Secretariat dharna will be held on May 25.
A delegation will go to New Delhi in the first week of June and would submit
a memorandum to the Centre, Peter said.