National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) has urged the state fisheries minister and fisheries department to raise and seek to keep in abeyance the Indian marine fisheries (IMF) bill 2021 till the concerns of lakhs of fishworkers across India are addressed while alleging the draft bill will curtail the fishing rights of marine capture fishers. In a memorandum to the Goa government, NFF president Narendra Patil and general secretary, Olencio Simoes condemned the bill as it is sought to be pushed during the pandemic without consulting the fishing community. The bill lacks clarity in definitions and contravenes the definitions and international terms with regard to the customary traditional rights of Indian fishers over the land and sea, and also dispossesses the rights of the coastal States over fisheries and management of activities in territorial waters, the memorandum states.
2021 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.