Tarun Karthick
Campbell Bay, 07 November 2021
The Fishermen Community of Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar has threatened to block roads on 8th November 2021 to press for their demand of refusing permission for fishing to a legally licensed long line boat.
The members of the community are strictly against any long line boat to operate from Campbell Bay. A well renowned local businessman of Campbell Bay invested lakhs of rupees and procured a long line boat to operate from Campbell Bay.
The members of the fishermen community while speaking to Nicobar Times during their dharna in front of the Fisheries Ice Plant on 5th November 2021, informed that if the long line boat operates, then their business will suffer and they will have no means to earn their livelihood.
The members of the fishermen community on multiple occasions blocked the entry of the Fisheries Ice Plant at Campbell Bay to prevent the staff of the long line boat from procuring ice blocks.
The Govt. of India has been focusing on encouraging people to invest in the fisheries sector, to increase the capacity of the country to tap the fisheries resources, such hurdles created by the local fishermen of any region will discourage people from investing.
Great Nicobar Island can become a fisheries powerhouse. Proper transportation facilities for the catch of the fishermen should be arranged so that their catch can be sold at other markets, where demand is substantial.
The current problem is that the fishermen have no means to transport their catch to Port Blair on time because of the unavailability of any means of transport. Their catch is stored in the cold storage of the Fisheries Department for months, because of which the quality degrades and the traders of Port Blair refuse to buy their stock.
At present, the local fishermen sell their catch primarily to traders of Car Nicobar Island. Transportation should be made available to them so that they can sell their produce to traders in Port Blair on time.
None of the problems of the fishermen gives them an excuse to stop a legally licensed fishing boat from operating by creating hurdles. The Indian Constitution guarantees the ‘Freedom to Practice any Profession, or Carry on any Occupation, Trade or Business’ for all citizens.
It should be the top priority for the Administration to ensure that a legally licensed long line boat should be allowed to carry on fishing and no person is able to create any hurdle in its operation through protest or anything otherwise.
The problems of the fishermen community are arising because of the non-availability of proper means of transport to export their produce on time to other regions. The non-availability of proper transport facility is the precursor to the protests happening to stop the operation of the legally licensed longline fishing boat.