RAMANATHAPURAM
Rameswaram mechanised boat fishermen, who were on strike and had announced to stage a ‘self-immolation’ stir on July 14 in protest against the Sri Lankan legislation imposing fishing restrictions in the Palk Bay, have decided to call off the strike and defer the proposed stir.
Leaders of mechanised boat fishermen associations decided to resume fishing from Saturday after G. S. Sameeran, Additional Director of Fisheries, held talks with them here on Tuesday and assured to take up their demands with the government and do the needful.
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“Based on the assurances given by the Additional Director, we have decided to defer the self-immolation stir and call off the strike,” P. Sesu Raja, one of the fishermen association leaders, said. The officer seemed to be genuinely concerned and they decided to suspend the agitation reposing faith in him, he said.
The leaders said the Lankan legislation would severely affect their livelihood and sought breathing time before they switched over to deep sea fishing or shifted their fishing base to other areas to avoid venturing into the Palk Bay. They wanted the Centre to prevail upon the Lankan government to reconsider the legislation.
They were also aggrieved at the levy of GST on fishing nets and wanted the government to withdraw the tax. Mr Sameeran said efforts were already on to divert a section of fishermen in Rameswaram to Mandapam and Erwadi. Once the Mookaiyur fishing harbour and Kunthukal fishing jetty were ready, the Rameswaram fishing jetty could be decongested to a large extent, he said.
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The leaders requested him to arrange meetings with Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to directly air their grievances. The leaders were assured that they could meet the Chief Minister after the end of the ongoing Assembly session.