General Secretary of the National Fisheries Federation, Nelson Edirisinghe says that more powers will be added to the National Fisheries Federation by the proposed new Fisheries Act to be presented to Parliament soon by the Minister of Fisheries and the responsibility of National Fisheries Federation and Rural Fisheries Societies will come under the Ministry.

He expressed these views when he made his presence at the election of the Matara District Union of the National Fisheries Federation was held on 27/09/2023 at Puranawella Fishery Harbour at Devinuwara in Matara.

In further comments, he said that the National Fisheries Federation which came into existence under the Fisheries Act No. 02 of 1996 originated at the time of former Minister of Fisheries Mr. Rajitha Senaratne, but none of the Ministers had enacted its regulations so far, according to the opinion of the current Minister of Fisheries, Mr. Douglas Devananda, the regulations have now been framed and forwarded to the Legal Draftsman’s Department with the Minister's signature, once received it will be presented to the Cabinet by the Minister for approval, he said. Also, the fishermen in this country are more fortunate than the community groups engaged in other professions and no other agricultural or plantation workers or any trade union at the state and corporate level has a trade union operated by the Ministry related to them while the National Fisheries Federation has given you that opportunity, he said.

Furthermore, this Federation intends to implement programmes to raise the economic level of women fishermen and establish a National Fishery Disaster Fund to assist fishermen when they meet with troubles in the sea, he said.

New office bearers were elected for the year 2024 and future activities will be led by the new office bearers.A group of people including the Federation's Administration Secretary, Mr. Disanayaka and Matara District Assistant Director of Fisheries Mr. Madhusanka participated in this event.