Unending misery of TN fishermen

Days after Tamil Nadu assembly brought a resolution to join in the case filed in the Supreme Court to retrieve the Kachatheevu island that was ceded to Srilanka, 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen and their five boats were captured by Sri Lankan Navy. Following this, Fishermen Associations of Rameswaram and Pudukottai announced the indefinite strike. They vowed that they will not go to the see until the detained fishermen were released.

On Monday, 700 mechanized boats of Rameswaram went to sea for fishing. They were supposed to return on Tuesday. But all returned except 5 boats and 23 fishermen who were detained by Sri Lankan navy for fishing in their sea water boundary near the island of Kachateevu.

From 1983 onwards, fishermen of Tamilnadu are continuously tormented and killed by srilankan navy people. Even after the civil war was settled in that island on 2009, the killings and arrests of TN fishermen continues.
After Jayalalitha assumed the chief minister chair, she made the resolution to retrieve kachatheevu, which is the root problem for fishermen crisis.

“Crossing the sea borders is very much natural among the fishermen. Navy of Sri Lanka was supposed to warn and guide the fishermen to their boundaries. But they often shoot and torture inhumanly,” says N. J. Bose, general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Coastal Fishermen’s Welfare Association. Due to this, during the last two decades around 500 fishermen have lost their lives, a report says.

Recently a high profile delegation from India went to Sri Lanka to discuss many issues which included firshermen issue also. But no significant progress was attained. TamilNadu chief minister Jayalalithaa have written a letter to Prime Minister asking for immediate release of the fishermen.