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Kerala CPI (M) govt sold deep-sea fishing rights to a US firm; cancels deal after outrage

kerala deep sea fishing

The embattled Communist Party of India (Marxist) government in Kerala is in a bind after it was discovered that the state government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an American company for deep-sea fishing, reports Organiser.  

Now, the ideologically anti-capitalist, communist CPI (M)-led government in Kerala and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are entangled in a huge political controversy right before the assembly elections that are scheduled to take place in the next two months. 

News about the MoU, which hands over the deep-sea fishing rights to the American firm and ensures that it has a corporate monopoly, has put a huge question mark over the integrity and the hypocritical stance of the ruling CPI (M), as the party opposed the Centre’s farm laws.

The deal was signed by Kerala Industrial Development Corporation (KIDC), which is the arm of the investment promotion agency under the Industries Department, with the EMCC International India Private Limited, the Indian subsidiary of New York-based EMCC Global Consortium LCC.

However, due to outrage among the public, the MoU now stands cancelled by the red-faced government. CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Industries Minister E P Jayarajan and Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma now not only deny that they ever met with EMCC executives, but are also denying the existence of the MoU which was signed in 2020. The meeting allegedly took place at the CM’s residence in August 2019.

Many in Kerala have called this now-cancelled MoU an attempt at the monopolisation of the state fisheries sector. The newly-formed Matsya Mekhala Samrakshana Samiti, a forum intending to preserve the coastal wealth of Kerala, has accused the Communist government of trying to sell Kerala’s marine wealth to the US firm. The Samiti has called for a coastal hartal on February 27.

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