Thiruvanathapuram: While welcoming the partial debt relief for small and marginal farmers, the Kerala Swantantra Matstya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF) stated that it was unfortunate that Finance Minister P Chidambaram once again completely ignored the concerns of the fishing community.

‘The 60,000 crore relief package is a step forward, but given the limited access of small and marginal farmers to institutional credit (where the waiver will apply), the scheme will not cover a vast majority of farmers who have borrowed at exorbitant rates of interest from money lenders. Further if one locates the budget in the overall neo-liberal macroeconomic policies of the UPA Government, much of the ‘pro people’ schemes in the budget can be see as hollow pre-election rhetoric’ stated T Peter, President of the KSMTF.

Added Peter, ‘Despite the growing optimism about India’s economic prowess and high economic growth, life for over 1 million fisherfolk in Kerala remains bleak’.

Challenges facing the community are similar to that of farmers and agricultural labour. These include lack of remunerative prices, absence of institutional credit mechanisms, rising fuel and raw material costs and the threats of cheap imports through free trade agreements. The budget draws a blank on all these counts

Measures to combat climate change figured prominently in Minister Chidambaram’s speech. But here again the Minister came up a cropper.

‘Organisations such as the United Nations have recognised that a deadly combination of climate change, over-fishing by big trawlers and pollution could cause the collapse of fish stocks within decades’, informed Peter. The Minister should have announced institutional mechanisms to address the dire situation in the fisheries sector, but instead he has slashed excise duties on small cars as a means to combat climate change.

Peter concluded that the Federation has consistently raised these issues with the Kerala Government and it was unfortunate that concerns of the fishing community continue to be outside the realm of national policy making processes.