‘Everything done to boost fishing in North’ :

Minister refutes fishermens representatives’ allegations

by P. KRISHNASWAMY

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne refuted media reports purportedly emerging from fishermen in the Mullaitivu district pointing an accusing finger that his Ministry has permitted a large number of Southern fishermen to engage in ‘Ma Del’ fishing (beachseine fishing) in the district and denied local fishermen of their right to fish.

This is one of the many communally-coloured accusations emerging from the district that was the last bastion of the LTTE, he said. He told the Sunday Observer that he never permitted the fishing community from the South to go to the North or the East.

According to the report which was first broadcast over the BBC quoting the head of a fishermen’s organisation, 40 deeds of the traditional Mullaitivu fishermen were transferred in favour of the southern fishermen while also bestowing the same right on another 110.

The Minister said that when he realised that some outsiders had been permitted to engage in “Ma Del” fishing in the traditional fishing areas of the local Tamil fishermen, he met the aggrieved fishermen at his Ministry, several months ago, and rectified the error by retrieving the deeds from the others and returned them to the Mullaitivu fishermen.

The recent accusations in the report are incorrect, he said adding that the Ministry was doing everything possible to increase fish productivity in the Northern province and raise the living standard of fishers.

Fishery harbours are being built in many fishing areas in the Jaffna and Mannar districts, including Gurunagar and Pesalai.

Two of them are being built by the Japanese and Korean Governments while others have been handed over to Danish and other multinational companies, he said.

The Minister is now on a visit to Mannar to meet the fishermen in an effort to redress their grievances and extend assistance and facilities to boost the industry, he said.

He also said that he would take all steps to ensure the economic well-being of the fisher families in the district who had suffered untold hardships due to the LTTE.