Rameswaram fishers launch strike over frequent arrests by SL Navy

MADURAI: Rameswaram fishermen launched an indefinite strike on Monday, urging the central government’s immediate intervention to fulfill their demands.

The fishermen with their aggrieved families staged a protest in Rameswaram on Monday to draw attention to their plight and seek help from the government.

Among their list of demands was the release of the Tamil Nadu fishermen in Sri Lankan prisons and their boats from the Lankan custody.

Condemning the arrests by the Lankan Navy, VP Sesuraja, the president of the Rameswaram All Mechanized Boats Fishermen Association, sought the intervention of the central and state governments to expedite their release.

After the annual fishing ban along the east coast of Tamil Nadu was lifted in June, 40 fishermen with seven mechanised boats and nine fishermen with a country boat have been detained by the Lankan Navy so far, he noted.

Several resolutions were passed urging the authorities to protect the TN fishermen and their families, and more importantly, to find a permanent solution to ensure the traditional fishing rights on Katchatheevu are not compromised on any ground and the retrieval of their most sought-after fishing ground, he said.

Thanking the state government for having provided compensation for the damaged boats in Sri Lankan custody, a demand was also made for providing a similar compensation for some other damaged boats that remain unconsidered during the protest.

A resolution was also passed urging Chief Minister MK Stalin to involve all the Parliamentarians of the INDI Alliance to stress the early release of TN fishermen and their boats from Sri Lanka in the upcoming winter session.

The association has planned a protest demonstration at Thangachimadam on August 13 and a hunger strike on August 15, Sesuraja said, adding that further rail roko would be conducted on August 19.