The Hindu : Front Page : Stir against fish import, foreign trawlers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

Stir against fish import, foreign trawlers

Special Correspondent

KOCHI: To protest the Centre's move to allow import of fish from Thailand, the Fisheries Coordination Committee (FCC), a collective of different interest groups in the fisheries sector in Kerala, has decided not to let ships carrying fish cargo into the Kochi harbour.

Leaders of several organisations of fish workers, at a meeting of boat owners and traditional fishermen, also decided not to allow foreign fishing vessels into the harbour or the waters off the Kochi shore. The FCC, which has been campaigning against foreign trawlers and joint ventures that fish in deep sea for long, has been incensed by the move to import fish from Thailand.

Following an Indo-Thai trade accord, starting from September, fish could be imported duty-free from Thailand.

The import is feared to depress the domestic prices and further worsen the crisis in the sector.

The FCC will soon launch an agitation to protest fish import and foreign trawlers, to press for the setting up of a separate Union Ministry for Fisheries and to seek subsidy on diesel used by fishing boats.

Encouraged by the LDF Government's policy to prioritise fisheries, the FCC will press for moving a resolution in the Assembly that will ask the Union Government to back off from the move to import fish and to issue more licences to joint-venture ships to fish in the deep sea.

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