[Reader-list] Fwd: Fishermen Plans National Campaign

[T Peter]

Fishermen Plans National Campaign

By Arun Jayan - THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Published: 04th March 2014 08:21 AM

Last Updated: 04th March 2014 08:21 AM

Ahead of the Lok Sabha election, the fishing community is gearing up to
launch a nation-wide campaign from Kerala raising various demands,
including setting up of a separate ministry for fisheries and fishermen
welfare.

 Fishermen, who form a predominant vote bank of political parties, plan to
run their campaign parallel to the political campaigns of various parties
in Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha, Goa, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Andaman Nicobar. The campaign will be launched in
Kochi on Wednesday followed by Gujarat on March 10.

 ''We want to send a clear signal to the political parties. Demands of the
fishing community are often neglected by both Centre and State Governments.

The population of fishermen in the country is three crore. Though they are
striving and providing nutritious fish as food to 80 per cent of the
population of our country at cheap rate, they remain socially, economically
and educationally backward. But, in spite of this, fisheries had been
included as the fourth portfolio behind agriculture, animal husbandry and
dairy under the Ministry of Agriculture since its inception and fishermen's
welfare is continuously being neglected by the authorities concerned,''
said T Peter, secretary, National Fishworkers Forum (NFF), an umbrella of
state-level trade unions in the fishing sector.

 National Fishworkers Forum leaders had met various political parties,
including Congress, BJP, CPM, CPI and AAP in New Delhi last month and
submitted a memorandum highlighting various issues of the fishing community.

The key demands raised in the memorandum include strict implementation of
the ban on coastal sand mining as ordered by the National Green Tribunal,
10 cents of land each to fishermen families for building houses away from
the areas prone to sea erosion and ban on destructive fishing gadgets in
the Indian territorial waters.

 ''For the agriculture sector, various loans such as cultivation loan, crop
loan and gold loan are given through banks and other government financial
institutions at 4 per cent interest rate. But, the fisherfolk have to pay
an interest rate of 12 per cent for their loans.

 This interest rate should be made on a par with that in the agriculture
sector. Also, all loans availed of by fishermen from banks and cooperative
societies to purchase boat, net, engine and other auxiliary equipment
should be written off in the event of fishermen suffering damage and loss
owing to natural disasters such as cyclones, hurricanes, heavy rains,''
Peter added.