Fisheries Minister Vinod Palyekar on Thursday said that the central government has agreed to the state’s demands of financial grants for fisheries infrastructure and imposing ban on LED fishing techniques beyond the territorial waters of Goa. Palyekar, who called on Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh on Thursday in Delhi, discussed various issues pertaining to the state fisheries department. We had demanded around Rs 80 crore for fisheries infrastructure which includes Rs 60 crore for the renovation of existing infrastructure and Rs 20 crore for the proposed floating jetties at Malim and Chapora which has been agreed to by the Union Minister for Agriculture, stated Palyekar. He also claimed that the Centre has agreed on the LED ban and soon an advisory would be released by the central government in this regard. We had proposed to the central government to prohibit LED fishing beyond the territorial waters of the coastal state, that is, in the exclusive economic zone of India, and also take the initiative to direct all the maritime states to prohibit LED light fishing in their respective territorial waters, he said. During his visit, he also urged the Centre to revise and consider the old pattern of assistance under blue revolution scheme. Palyekar also sought a hike in financial grants for infrastructure development of four fish lending centres Malim, Chapora, Cortalim and Cutbona, for which the work had commenced on 75 per cent central funding. However, it was later revised and came down to 50-50 per cent share of both, central and the state governments. The pattern of the scheme has been revised by the government of India with 50-50 basis from the year 2016-17 due to which there was an additional liability on the state. And the project cost of the four fish landing centres, which was submitted in the year 2013 has been revised and increased from Rs 84.18 crore to Rs 160 crore due to change in GSR rate and revision of the design and estimate of the project, he explained. He also raised the issue of non-release of funds under Strengthening of Database and Geographical Information System for the fisheries sector scheme, which is a 100 per cent central grant scheme.