Team Herald
VASCO: On World Fisheries Day, the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) on Sunday called upon the Centre to withdraw all blue economy polices and demanded that the Government of India should start and complete the Traditional Fishers and Coastal Right Bill so that the fishworkers of the country will inherent their fundamental rights, who are on the verge of displacement due to the government’s “draconian” polices. The NFF threatened to start aggressive protest across the country with support of the farmers, if the Centre fails in this regard.
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In a press statement, NFF general secretary Olencio Simoes extended his greetings to the fishing community across India especially Goa on World Fisheries Day.
Olencio said, “We dedicate this day to all protesting farmers and the ones who have died. The ‘repealing’ of the three farm laws is a tight slap on the “fascist” government and has clearly shown that all policies bought by this government are only to destroy our environment and traditional livelihood.”
Simoes said, “The NFF remembers the work done by our stalwarts like Matanhy Saldanha, Harekrishna Debnath, R K Patil, Fr Thomas Kochery, T Peter and others who immensely contributed towards safeguarding the coastal ecology of our country and have protected the livelihood of millions of coastal communities across India.”
“The Government of India is all out to destroy the small scale fish workers of India, as the blue economy polices and dilution of laws like the Major Port Authorities Bill, CRZ notification 2019, river nationalisation and the Sagarmala project plan displace millions of fish workers and framers across India”, he claimed.
