NEW DELHI: Hundreds of thousands of members of the traditional fishing community in India will form a human chain, standing arm in arm, along the coast to highlight issues confronting them, including the lethal threat of being bulldozed by large ships at the high seas. The members of the National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF), a pan-Indian organization representing fishermen across the length of India's coast said that they want norms to be in place vis-à-vis conduct of large ships ploughing through the deep seas. They want the government to set a ship travel limit as 60 nautical miles from the coast and not nearer to avoid collisions with smaller trawlers that are often invisible to the ships. They have also demanded the lifting of the high-alert issued in Arabian Sea, enhancing various security programs, which were created for the safety of fishermen community. T Peter General Secretary of the National Fishworkers' Forum said that they continue to face issues, despite the government forming an expert committee to look into the issues and cases concerning the fishworkers. “The main aim of the program is to inform the government of various demands providing compensation to those who were killed in ship collision and the firing mishap (off Kerala where Italian naval commandos shot and killed two Indian fishermen) and setting up of an expert committee to look after the cases related to the fishermen,” T Peter said. Recently two Indian fishermen were killed by Italian commandos, who believed them to be pirates, in the Arabian Sea off the coast of the state of Kerala located on the South West Coast of India. The incident sparked off a diplomatic row between India and Italy as India believed that the commandos should be tried for murder according to Indian laws. Italy however maintains that the shooting happened in the international waters and should be tried in International courts. A NFF three-day vehicle publicity rally would be taken out in the district on April 20, 21 and 22.
