Having lost her second son, a fisherman who died in Bahrain six months ago while engaged in contract fishing, an aged mother has been waging a lone battle to secure the body of her first son who died while fishing on August 6.
V. Rajaram (54), a Thirupalaikudi fisherman, had gone to Pudukottai seeking employment and had set out for fishing along with six other fishermen in a country boat (TN02 WV 622) on August 6 and went missing, the same day night while fishing on the high seas. Since then, V. Jayanayagi (76), his widowed mother, had been petitioning the Collector, fisheries officials and the Chief Minister’s Office to trace her son who was taking care of her.
Tragedy struck her few years ago when her third son committed suicide and six months ago, when her second son Ekalaivan (45) died in Bahrain. After Ekalaivan’s death, his son Vibishnan (20) had gone to Bahrain to take care of the family of his mother and three siblings.
As reports suggested that Rajaram would have drowned, the woman presented a fresh petition to the Collector here on Monday requesting him to take up the issue with the State government and secure the body of her son.
As the deceased fisherman was fishing with others in the Sri Lankan waters near Gopuram Theevu, the Indian government should prevail upon the Sri Lankan government to launch a search operation and trace the body, she said.
Fellow fishermen said that Rajaram had dinner with them onboard and went to sleep. They woke up after midnight to pull the net, when they found him missing. He would have gone to the edge of the boat to relieve himself and might have fell into the sea and drowned, they said.
“I want my son back,” the weeping woman kept on saying, beating her stomach. She cursed herself for losing all her three sons. She is under the care of one of her daughters and pleaded that the Collector sanctioned either old age or widow pension to her.
No meeting for
two years
M. Karunamurthy, district secretary, ‘Tamil Nadu Meen pidi thozhirsanga Koottamaippu,’ said that fishermen could not express their grievances directly to the Collector as the fishermen grievance meetings were not conducted for nearly two years.
