Thiruvananthapuram sources have made a statement that the national policy on marine fisheries notified by the Central government on April 28 has recommended a major push for private investments in deep-sea fishing, eliciting serious concerns among fishermen communities who see it as a backdoor entry for foreign players and the policy declares the government’s intention to rescind the Letter of Permit (LoP) scheme allowing foreign vessels to operate in Indian waters.
Meanwhile when considering as per the notification the LoP scheme has not had the expected impact on inclusive development of the deep-sea fishing sector, the government will rescind the existing scheme and consider an alternate mechanism for development of the sector.
However, it seeks to encourage entrepreneurship
development, private investment and public private partnership in the marine
fisheries sector. It also calls for harnessing overseas technology to develop
an optimum fleet size of modern fishing vessels capable of undertaking extended
voyages, by opening up the sector to private investors; the government is
providing an alternative to the LoP scheme for foreign players to come in.
Meanwhile, the State government is piqued over the Centre’s refusal to address the demands and concerns raised by the State at various stakeholder consultations during the policy formulation and the key government sources said most of the issues highlighted by the State had been ignored by the Centre.
