When on June 1st, the meet of the drafting committee for the National Fisheries Policy happened in Delhi under your Chairmanship, you had been kind to invite us, representatives of the fisher communities from various Coastal States to participate 5th meet of the draft committee besides you and the other nominated members. We thank Honourable Minister of Agriculture, the Secretary of Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries and Joint Secretary (fisheries), the committee members of the drafting committee and most of all, you the chair of the committee. You had been kind to give sufficient time to the fisher representatives to raise their views and concerns and after patiently hearing all that, you identified the important demands and promised that you would ensure that they are reflected in the next draft policy document. We see that many of the demands of us raised in the 5th committee meet and in the representation made to Shri. Radhamohan Singh, Honourable Union Minister for Agriculture on 10-3-2016 have been incorporated in the second draft of the National Fisheries Policy document. Similarly, in the meeting held at the Honourable Minister’s office on 18-03-2016, in which the members of the National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) raised certain demands in the presence of the concerned Secretary of the Ministry and Joint Secretary of Fisheries and you, are incorporated in the second draft and we appreciate it very much and thank you and the committee members. The contribution made by members of the drafting committee and you is very appreciative as it contains very many salient aspects that are relevant. We feel that the document is prepared with a proper perspective. However, two were the most important representations made by the fisher communities. First: we wanted no LOP to be given to any vessel of Foreigners, any foreign companies or any Corporate Indian company or Indian non fisher individual, but rather the LOPs (Deep Sea Fishing Rights) be given to Indian traditional fishers only. The Second: we wanted all the schemes, concessions, assistances, funding supports, subsidies, allocations etc by the Union and State Governments for the development of fishing and fisheries under the guidance of the new marine fisheries policy shall only be given to people of the traditional fisher communities. These demands were presented by the fisher communities representatives and accepted unanimously in the 5th meet of the draft committee. Of the two resolutions, the first is reflected in the second draft policy document. However the second resolution is not found in the draft and it is disappointing. Since this resolution is missing, the fisher communities find the second draft policy is not acceptable. The representatives of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry who participated in the 5th committee meet, met in Chennai and have consulted leaders of other state fisher communities and want to express this as the opinion of the fisher communities of India: The decision regarding the beneficiaries taken on the committee meet of 1-6-2016 shall be included in the draft marine fisheries policy. This is our request to you and to all the drafting committee members. And even after this, the draft is finalized without taking our request into consideration, I am sorry to say that the fisher communities will not be in a position to accept the policy document. And taking the message that the Union government is working against the interest of the traditional fisher communities to nook and corner of the Indian coastal fishers and taking up needed activities towards it will be become inevitable. Point 8: Overcapacity of mechanised boats only need to be regulated, as the gear they use is capable of making marine resources unsustainable. Restriction of horse power of the engine and also restriction with regards to shallow water trawling need to be strictly specified with punitive action for the mechanised boats. Point 20: The monitoring should be done only by the state government machinery. Point 24: It should be made clear that is important for the marine ecology and resources that the nutrients reach from land through the rivers and therefore flood water reaching the sea should be allowed and appreciated (as against the recent popular belief that it is wasted). Point 31: Due and equal importance should be given to increasing the national marketing, where there is demand and better price for marine products. Fish producers should be encouraged through proper and timely transportation of fishes to long distance towns within the country, through financing the fisher women initiatives. Point 33: The fisher people should be encouraged to increase and improve their professional assets through NABARD supported credits that would take the new equipment as the collateral and no other landed collateral will be expected. A National Fisher people protection of rights and welfare act should be promoted to meet the needs of the fisher communities with regards to welfare measures on par with Adivasi protection and rights act. Point 38: State Governments shall be encouraged to implement schemes through which proper built shops with facility to dress the marine products and toilet facility for women and to be given as individual credit to fisher women traders through single window system established for this purpose. M.Ilango, Chairperson, NFF.