Kerala seeks Fisheries Ministry at the Centre

New Delhi, Dec 22 (UNI) Kerala today urged the Centre to set up an exclusive ministry for fisheries which is presently being handled by the Agriculture ministry.

The demand was made by Kerala fisheries Minister S Sarma at the Conference of State Ministers of Agriculture and allied sectors on National Commission on Farmers.

Mr Sarma told mediapersons that a separate ministry for fisheries was justified in the context of the the increasing export.

He suggested to the Centre not to impose a ''unified'' monsoon trawling ban. Such a ban should be state-specific, depending upon the onset of the monsoon.

He said he demanded that the Centre implement the recommendations of the 1991 Murari Commission that the licences issued to foreign vessels for trawling be cancelled.

Mr Sarma said the state also expressed its protest over the move to lease water bodies which will lead to a larger role to multinationals in the sector.

Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Retnakaran, who also attended the Conference, said he argued for the setting up of a National Agricultural Debt Relief Commission on the model of the one being set up in Kerala.

He said Kerala was also opposed to the idea of contract farming envisaged in the Swaminathan Commission Report.

Mr Retnakaran said he had suggested that the Centre introduce a state-sponsored insurance policy for the benefit of the girl child of a farmer so that she got a good amount for marriage. ''Such a policy would go a long way in finding a solution to farmer suicides.

The debts of the farmers were mostly connected with the marriage of their daughters,'' he pointed out.

UNI SH RR HS1918