Northern fishers to present protest memo to Indian PM
by P. Krishnaswamy
Fisher communities of the North, angry over continued harassment at
sea by Tamil Nadu fishing flotillas will present a protest memorandum to
Indian Premier Narendra Modi when he visits Mannar later this week.
Fishermen's representatives told the Sunday Observer yesterday that
they had shelved their original plan for a protest demonstration during
Premier Modi's Mannar visit as a goodwill gesture.
Mannar District Fishermen's Federation President Justin Soysa and
President of the Northern Province Fishermen's Alliance Noor Mohamed
Alam said that their associations which virtually encompassed the entire
Northern fishing communities held meetings and decided to stage protest
demonstrations during the visit of the Indian PM but later changed the
decision in the national interest.
If no favourable decision is forthcoming, they would take recourse to
apprehending the poaching vessels and hand them over to the Navy and
police, they said.
The decades-long poaching and the prohibited methods of fishing by
the Indian fishermen continue to deplete Sri Lanka's marine resources
posing a threat not only to their livelihood but annihilating the marine
resources. Their discussions over the years with the fishermen's
associations and the governments on ending the hazardous trend has not
been successful, they said.
At their meeting with the Indian fishermen's associations in Chennai
originally scheduled for March 11 now postponed for a further date after
March 18 by the Tamil Nadu state government and all their previous
meetings having not been successful, they would now seek redress from
the Indian PM, they said. They also said that they wish an end poaching
in their territorial waters and nothing else.
The decades-long poaching and the prohibited methods of fishing by
the Indian fishermen continue to deplete Sri Lanka's marine resources
posing a threat not only to their livelihood but annihilating the marine
resources. Their discussions over the years with the fishermen's
associations and the governments on ending the hazardous trend has not
been successful, they said. At their meeting with the Indian fishermen's
associations in Chennai originally scheduled for March 11 now postponed
for a further date after March 18 by the Tamil Nadu state government and
all their previous meetings having not been successful, they would now
seek redress from the Indian PM, they said.
They also said that they wish an end poaching in their territorial
waters and nothing else. |
