Fishermen to stage rail roko, boycott St Anthony’s festival

The latest of the arrests happened on Saturday night, when 15 fishermen belonging to Rameswaram and nine fishermen from along Pudukottai coast were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy while they were fishing in international waters. In all, four trawlers and 24 fishermen were arrested and taken to Sri Lanka. 

The 15 fishermen were taken to Mannar and were handed over to the fisheries department. Similarly the nine fishermen were arrested and taken to Kankesanthurai Port, where the arrested fishermen were once again handed over to Fisheries department. This is the third such incident in the last three days and 50 fishermen have been arrested till the time of going to press. 

In the first incident which happened on March 2, 26 fishermen were arrested in two incidents. In the first incident, 13 were arrested and in the second, 13 more were arrested, all on the same day. The sudden arrests of 50 fishermen had created a furore among the fishing community in the state. Fishermen  in Rameswaram convened an emergency meeting. 

In the meeting headed by MK Bose, one of the leaders of fishermen from Rameswaram, several key decisions were taken. Some of them include striking work from March 8, boycotting the Katchatheevu Church festival which is conducted on March 11 and 12, and to stage rail roko on the same date. Sagayam, another fishermen leader, claimed that the Sri Lankan government does not want Tamil Nadu fishermen to attend the annual Katchatheevu festival and hence are arresting Tamil Nadu fishermen to instil fear among the fishermen. 

The central government which should protect the interests of Tamil fishermen is acting as a mute spectator, he said. Alleging that the central government is acting against the interests of Tamil people when it comes to both farming and fishing, the fishermen at the meeting decided to stage a protest decrying the central government.

Chief Minister Edappadi  K Palanisami on Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the arrest of  fishermen by the Lankan authorities in the last few days and said these incidents were causing hardship and mental agony to the fishermen community. “This sharp escalation in harassment and apprehension of our fishermen is causing considerable hardship and mental agony to the poor, innocent fishermen,” the letter read. Tamil Nadu has been repeatedly urging the Centre to sanction a comprehensive project for conversion of mechanised trawlers into deep sea long-liners and create the infrastructure to resolve the issue, he said.