Condemning the Sri Lankan Navy and the island nation’s government, Tamil Nadu fishermen on Monday, March 18, 2024, appealed to the Union government to immediately intervene and stop the arrests of fishermen in Palk Bay.
An emergency meeting of fishermen from various associations was held in Rameswaram under the leadership of P. Jesu Raja. The meeting passed five resolutions unanimously. The members condemned the Sri Lankan Navy for its arrests and assaults. “We venture into the sea for our livelihoods. It has now become routine for the Sri Lankan Navy to arrest us. This amounts to victimising us. We are being arrested on false charges of poaching,” the fishers charged.
The meeting demanded the immediate release of 63 fishermen (26 from Rameswaram including the 21 held two days ago, 22 from Nagapattinam and Pudukottai and 15 from Karaikal), now jailed in Sri Lanka.
The members resolved to press the Union government to get the jailed fishermen released immediately and also to get their 143 vessels, that have been impounded over the course of four years, brought back to them.
Demonstration in Rameswaram
The fishermen also announced that they would stage a demonstration in Rameswaram on Tuesday, March 26, to draw the attention of the Union government towards this issue.
The fishermen said they have also decided to venture into the sea for only two days a week instead of three days due to the continuing arrests.
The Union government should hold talks with the Sri Lankan government and ensure that there was no threat to the livelihood of the fisherfolk in Tamil Nadu, the meeting resolved in its resolution. We, fishers, are also citizens of the country, and this step-motherly treatment towards us must stop, the fishers said they resolved at their meeting.
It may be recalled that fishers from Thangachimadam and Rameswaram, along with their families, had gone on a relay hunger fast in protest over the same issue, last month.
