TN govt informed Madras High Court that Centre's new norms for regulating deep sea fishing impractical
19 Aug 2015 10:43 AM IST
Definition of “Operator” had been expanded to include “Joint Ventures” with up to 49 percent foreign equity.
Madras High Court
Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court that the Centre's new guidelines for regulating deep sea fishing in Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), is considered highly impractical and it also sparked a very strong criticism and protest from fishermen across India, including Tamil Nadu. E. Sivagurunathan, additional secretary, animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries department, stated this in a counter to a PIL by Fishermen Care, which sought to quash the new guidelines.
Posting to September 22, further hearing of the case, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T. S. Sivagnanam also imposed costs of Rs 10,000 on the Union government for not filing the counter in the matter.
Sivagurunathan submitted among other things that deep sea fishing vessels had been re-defined in the guidelines as “Fishing Vessels of 15 meter Overall Length and above or any resource specific vessel or any vessel fit for deep sea operations”.
Moreover, the definition of “Operator” had been expanded to include “Joint Ventures” with up to 49 percent foreign equity. This definition also included now “Any Indian Citizen”. Letter of Permission in writing was required for operating any fishing vessel in the EEZ.
Thus, even the existing Indian Coastal Fishing Vessels, which were between an overall Length of 15 meter and 20 meter will now be required to obtain a letter of permission which was not required earlier, he said.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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