Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh has assured a delegation of fishermen that the recommendations in the Dr. B. Meenakumari Committee report on deep-sea fishing will not be implemented.
The assurance came during a meeting of the delegation comprising leaders of fishermen’s organisations with the Minister in New Delhi on Thursday, said D. Majeendran of the Kerala Swathanthra Matsyathozhilali Federation. The delegation included M. Elango and T. Peter of the National Fish Workers’ Forum.
The government constituted a committee headed by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to study issues related to deep-sea fishing, including the Letter of Permits to foreign or joint venture companies for fishing in Indian waters.
The committee will comprise representatives of fishermen’s unions, Ministers of coastal States, and Fisheries Secretaries from these States. Mr. Majeendran said the Defence Minister would meet leaders of fishermen’s unions on Friday afternoon to discuss the preliminaries.
Mr. Mohan Singh also assured the leaders that stakeholders would be consulted before any policy was formulated on deep-sea fishing in the country.
The Meenakumari committee was constituted on the basis of a call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a Blue Revolution in the country. However, fishermen’s unions had been on the warpath ever since the report was released on August 20 last year.
Dr. Meenakumari, formerly a scientist at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute here, had recommended, among other things, issue of Letters of Permits to joint ventures or foreign vessels as Indian fishing capabilities were not enough to exploit the resources.
Guidelines issued
The Union Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairy, and Fisheries had earlier this year issued guidelines on deep sea-fishing based on the recommendations of the committee.
Minister says stakeholders will be consulted before any policy is formulated on deep-sea fishing
