With the opposition alleging that foreign trawlers were fishing in the Indian waters affecting the livelihood of local fishermen, the government today said there were no such reports.
Replying to a calling attention motion on issues related to deep-sea fishing in the Rajya Sabha, Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said the government was committed to empower the traditional fisherman and boost fish production through the Blue Revolution programme.
He said the Centre has started a scheme to provide assistance of up to Rs 40 lakh to traditional fishermen to buy deep sea fishing vessels and provided Rs 200 crore to the Tamil Nadu government for this purpose.
As some opposition members expressed concern over under- reporting of the catch by deep-sea fishing vessels, Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked Singh to examine the matter saying the reported catch of fishing was low. "You should enquire into this issue".
K K Ragesh of CPI(M) and some other opposition members had moved the calling attention motion on the situation arising out of violation of conditions of Letter of Permit (LOP) by foreign trawlers in deep sea fishing in Indian seas.
The members alleged that foreign trawlers were using shell companies to get LOPs to operate in the Indian waters.
"Foreign trawlers are banned since 1997 and no LOP has been issued. Our Coast Guard is regularly monitoring through ships and aircraft. Three vessels from Sri Lanka and one from Pakistan were apprehended this year itself," Singh said.
Maintaining that foreign trawlers are not allowed to fish in the Indian waters, he said any foreign vessel, if found illegally fishing within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), is apprehended by the Indian Coast Guard.
He said there is no information regarding fishing or mid-sea trans-shipment in the EE?Z by foreign vessels, as per the Coast Guard's reports.
Under the LOP regime implemented by the ministry, Singh said "the LOPs had been granted only to the Indian owned resource-specific deep-sea fishing vessels. The LOP vessels were in operation since 2002 till 2015. No foreign deep sea trawlers with the LOP are operating in the Indian EEZ."
He said the government had rescinded the guidelines issued for operation of LOP vessels in January 2017. Subsequently, all LOPs issued were cancelled in March this year before the June 14 judgement of the Kerala High Court.
The Minister was responding to the allegations by Ragesh and some other Opposition members that foreign trawlers were looting the sea wealth by using the LOPs issued by the government. They claimed that LOPs were being issued through shell Indian entities.
Singh allayed Opposition concerns related to security threat, saying this was incorrect as "there is no LOP vessel or foreign vessel operating in Indian maritime zone area".
Stating that the traditional fishermen do not have money to buy vessels for deep fishing, he said the government has recently introduced a sub-component 'Assistance for Deep Sea Fishing' under the Blue Revolution scheme to promote traditional fishers in deep sea fishing.
The Centre is providing 50 per cent assistance with ceiling of Rs 40 lakh per vessel on procurement of deep sea fishing vessels by traditional fishers/their self-help groups/associations, he said.
The state governments will provide 30 per cent assistance and the rest will be borne by fishermen or self-helf groups.
Earlier, Ragesh said that only 477 tonnes of fish was reported in 2015 even as LOPs for 800 vessels were issued.
"It is not a small matter. It involves millions of dollars of corruption," he added.
D Raja (CPI) asked the government to protect the right of traditional fishermen. "Government will have to evolve a policy to resolve their problems."
He also wanted renegotiation of the India-Sri Lanka agreement on the Katchatheevu islands.
Tiruchi Siva (DMK) wanted to know whether the LOPs given earlier have been cancelled, saying deep sea fishing by foreign trawlers adversely affected the livelihood of local fishermen.
While Vijila Sathyananth (AIADMK) said the definition of 'deep sea length' and 'operator' have been changed, which will affect the local fishermen's interest, BSP's Veer Singh sought a national policy on fisheries to protect fishermen's livelihood as there was a loss to the exchequer due to the operation of foreign trawlers.
Dileep Tirkey (BJD), C P Narayanan and Tapan Sen (both CPI-M), Rajeev Gowda, K C Ramamurthy and Anand Bhaskar Rapolu (both Cong), C K Gohel (BJP) and Vijaysai Reddy (YSRCP) also spoke.
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