Fishing body to look into problems facing industry

The fishing industry has formed a new body — Federation of Indian Fishery Industry (FIFI) — to represent their grievances before the central government.

Representatives from nine coastal states met here recently to discuss the problems facing the industry.

FIFI has demanded that the government should not allow foreign fishing vessels in Indian waters. “Since June 2002, foreign fishing vessels have been entering our waters with letters of permit (LoP), which are being issued by the agriculture ministry. These vessels violate the LoP and various other guidelines including the Merchant Shipping Act and the Maritime Zone of India Act,” YGK Murthy, president, FIFI, told mediapersons.

Over 100 foreign vessels, mostly belonging to Taiwan, are currently operating in Indian waters with LOPs. These vessels catch tuna worth Rs 2,500 crore in a year apart from other fish and take these marine products to their country without paying any revenue to the Indian government, he alleged.

FIFI has also urged the Centre to set up a separate ministry for fisheries. Among others, it has sought uniformity in implementation of the conservation period both in east and west coast. “If the government does not address our problems immediately, we have decided to take up massive agitation programmes across the nine coastal states in the country,” he said.