Traditional fishermen suffer as collector bans all kind of fishing in the district.
Traditional fishermen living along the state's coastline from Jakhau in the west to Surajbari in the east have been left jobless after the Kutch district collector banned all kind of fishing in the district last month.
“They are among the poorest fishermen,” Abdula Pirzada, chairman of the Kutch Fishermen's Association told DNA. “They are known as pagadia because they fish in the coastal areas on foot or in small sailboats. The ban is illegal as the notification of the state fisheries department issued under the supreme State Fisheries Act of 2003, does not ban pagadias or fishing by non-mechanised boats.''
He said there were more than 50 such fishing villages inhabited by over 7,000 fishermen. He further said that when he met the district collector M Thennarasan last month to get the notification revoked, he gave him a patient hearing and promised action but there had been no action so far. Pirzada added that even the Porbandar-based State Fishermen's Association had described the notification as illegal and would be taking up the issue with the state government next week.
Jivanbhai Jungi, former president and spokesperson of the state-level fishermen's association said that they would be taking up the matter during a meeting with the state fisheries minister at Gandhinagar next week. “We will also seek directions from him as there are three official notifications from three different authorities banning fishing in the state for different periods of time,” Jungi said. “While the state fisheries department prohibits fishing along the state coast from June 10 to August 15, the collectors and district magistrates of Kutch and Saurashtra have banned it from June 10 to August 9 this year.”
However, the union agriculture ministry imposed a uniform ban on fishing by all fishing vessels in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on both the east and west coast from June 15 to July 31. For the first time, the ban period had been reduced to 47 days making the fishermen all over the country happy.
While Rajkot-based deputy director of fisheries said that their notification was solely based on the State Fisheries Act of 2003, additional district collector Gunwant Vaghela said they would take a decision after talking to the fisheries department.
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