Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday pursued the Central government’s intrusion concerning the recent trend of incidents involving fishermen being killed and detained by neighboring countries after they allegedly drifted into international waters.
Appealing for a special assistance package to ensure justice for fishermen, he says that they are living “hand to mouth in rather desperate conditions”.
“In the last 10 days, we had a Tamil fisherman shot by Sri Lankan authorities, we had a large number of Gujarati fishermen arrested by Pakistan and we have a number of Kerala fishermen who have been detained.
“All of this underscores the plight of the fishing community in our country. They are living hand to mouth in rather desperate conditions,” Tharoor said outside Parliament.
He complained about the depleting conditions of the fishermen even during the fishing season, because the stocks are exhausted. Due to the exhaustion in stocks, the fishermen had to go farther into the sea leading them to cross water borders.
“There is a need for systematic serious government intervention. We do not have a fisheries ministry. The agriculture ministry does not give priority. Fishermen are getting neglected and there is no infrastructural assistance given to them,” he said.
“We must have serious skill development project in the fishing community. All of this is very important. I have pleaded with the government to take this very seriously and come up with an urgent assistance package to help these fishermen all over India,” he said.
