Terminators thrive with trial licence
It all completed within just six days.
On June 2, Mominur Rahman Munshi, proprietor of HM International, claimed to have marine parts business, filed a writ with the High Court seeking directives for the government to award marine fishing licence for his fishing boat-turned vessel.
The triumph for the petitioner came on June 8.
On that day, the HC asked the government to allow Munshi's trawler to catch fish in the Bay of Bengal on a trial basis [per trip 14 days] for a period of three months beginning from the date of jurisdiction.
With the permission, the vessel joined a fleet of more than 50 trawlers, each having the go-ahead in almost similar fashion to fish in the Bay, the stock of which is feared to have been threatened for over-fishing.
Out of the trial permission winners, 34 trawlers have already engaged in fishing in the deep sea along with thousands of boats and officially permitted more than 110 vessels.
The June 8 'trial' fishing permission winner trawler FV (Fishing Vessel) Atlanta Merin-1 was originally a fishing boat (FB) named 'FB Ya Fattah' when it was auctioned by the Customs Authority, Mongla in November 1996.
Munshi renamed the trawler after buying it in April 2005 from Mozaher Ali Showdagar, a partner of Six Star Corporation, Chittagong, according to the sale receipt submitted to the HC.
But Principal Officer of Mercantile Marine Department Captain Habibur Rahman said there is no scope to convert an FB to FV.
"In general terms, fishing vessels are larger in size than fishing boats. These two are different categories and have different specifications. One cannot fit to the other," he said.
Before the transfer of trawler to Munshi, Showdagar bought the wooden trawler 'FB Ya Fattah' from Khulna-based Hanif & Brothers, the winner of Customs Authority's auction in 1996, according to the documents attached to the petition.
The fishing boat originally belonged to the Thai government. The Bangladesh Navy had earlier seized it for fishing in Bangladesh's territory.
According to the petition documents, the length of the boat was shown 16.46 metres and breadth 4.11 metres during the time of transfer to Munshi.
But the latest buyer increased the length to 24.05 metres and breadth 5.49 metres and turned it into a fishing vessel following repairing and docking at Dadaji Dockyard & Engineering early this year.
The HM International went to the HC after the government agencies -- Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) and Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) -- refused to grant it licence for fishing in the Bay on grounds that there was no approval from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock for the trawler.
It applied for the licence to MFD on April 18, 2010 and MDD on April 29 for registration and certificate of inspection (CoI).
The applications were rejected by the agencies in line with the government policy of not issuing licence for deep-sea fishing to prevent faster depletion of marine stocks.
The petitioner argued that 'lesser' number of trawlers are now involved in fishing within the territorial waters of Bangladesh.
It said in order to enhance appropriation of marine resources the number of trawlers for deep-sea fishing should be increased so that adequate number of trawlers can operate in the Bay as deep-sea fishing trawlers.
The petitioner also referred to a 2009 verdict saying the court made the rule absolute in a similar situation.
AKM Ali moved in favour of petitioner Mominur Rahman Munshi of HM International.
The HC bench of Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana and Justice Sheikh Hasan Arif issued the order.
DISCREPANCY IN INFORMATION
In its petition, HM International claimed that it was paying about Tk 300,000 salary a month for 25 employees in different posts of the trawler.
But in the licence application to the MFD, Munshi claimed to have been spending about Tk 150,000 per month for the same number of staff, according to the documents submitted supporting the petition.
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