[Reader-list] Free trade pacts, FDI opposed in retail, fisheries sectors

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Free trade pacts, FDI opposed in retail, fisheries sectors

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2710757.ece
Special Correspondent
The National Fish Workers Forum has opposed free trade agreements and
foreign direct investment in retail trade and the fisheries sector.

In a resolution adopted at its annual general body meeting held here
from December 7 to 9, the forum demanded that fish workers be
consulted before any trade agreement involving the fisheries sector
was signed.

The meeting opposed the establishment of nuclear power plants, and
expressed its solidarity with the people struggling against the
setting up of such plants at Kudankulam and Jaitapur. It strongly
opposed the establishment of thermal power plants with captive ports
on the coast and the setting up of new private ports.

The meeting took exception to the imposition of marine protected areas
with a blanket ban on fishing at the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, Malvan
in Maharashtra, the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu, Gahirmatha and
Bhitarkanika in Orissa, and the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve in West
Bengal. It demanded consultations with, and participation of, coastal
fish workers in the management of ecologically sensitive coastal
areas.

The meeting resolved to engage with the preparatory process of the
11th meeting of the parties (COP-II) of the Convention on Biodiversity
scheduled for October 2012 in Hyderabad to seek implementation of
participatory and equitable forms of conservation and management of
coastal and marine resources. It demanded the establishment of a
separate Fisheries Ministry at the Centre as the sector involved more
than 25 million people who made vital contribution to the food
security of the country.

The meeting wanted comprehensive legislation to rationalise the
fisheries sector with reference to fishing vessels, gears, and
resources ensuring preferential access for small and traditional
fishers to the stock of fish in Indian waters.

It demanded a ban on bottom trawling and use of purse-seine nets in
the territorial waters. In Maharashtra and Gujarat, these should be
prohibited even well beyond the territorial waters where traditional
fishing took place on a large scale. It called for the ratification
and implementation of ILO Convention no. 188 for Work in Fishing for
all coastal fish workers of the country.

In another resolution, the forum demanded the immediate implementation
of Unorganised Workers Social Security Act 2008 with reference to all
fish workers of the country.

It called for the implementation of the remaining 40 recommendations
of the Mandal Commission recommendations for Other Backward Classes
(OBC), which included reserved electoral constituencies for coastal
fisherfolk.