Govt wants to raise foreign crew limit for tuna boats to 85 pc

New Delhi, Aug 24 (UNI) In view of the lack of trained Indian staff, the Government is considering raising the foreign crew limit for tuna boats to 85 per cent so that deep-sea fishing operations were not affected.

Stating this in the Rajya Sabha during the Question Hour, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said that at present the limit was 75 per cent, but it was creating problems for operators as there was lack of trained Indian staff.

Replying to a supplementary, he said the government had opened many training institutes, but the desired number of students were not coming, mainly because of hard working conditions of the job which required a long period(six months) on baord the vessel in the sea.

Mr Pawar said India lacked sufficient number of tuna vessels so it was allowing Indian entrepreneurs to acquire purpose-built tuna fishing vessels through import.

Besides, it was encouraging conversion of deep-sea trawlers into long liners by providing cash subsidy, encouraging joint ventures in tuna fishing sector and constructing modern fishery harbours in addition to improving facilities at the existing ones.

He said the problems faced by the deep-sea fishing sector were debated in the Consultative Committee of MPs for the Ministry of Agriculture in May this year and were subsequently discussed in detail with the industry representatives by the Government.

Moreover the Inter-Ministerial Empowered Committee, which is going to meet on September 10, would consider the various issues flagged in these meetings and action would be taken by the Government on their advice, he said.

UNI