SL navy detains six fishermen from Ramanathapuram

Ramanathapuram: The Sri Lankan navy has detained six fishermen from the district for allegedly fishing in the territorial waters of the island nation in the early hours of Friday. According to a statement on the Lankan navy website, a fast gun boat from the Northern Naval Command on routine patrol detained the fishermen who trespassed three nautical miles into the Sri Lankan waters.

The fishermen were taken to the naval station at Elara and handed over to the fisheries inspectorate in Jaffna for legal action. Fisheries department officials here identified the arrested fishermen as M Sankar, 45, B Nagoor, 26, B Kaviyarasan, 20, V Raju, 19, and M Chetti, 35, of Nambuthalai village near Thondi in Ramanathapuram district and R Malai, 45, of Thiruppalaikudi village.

They went for fishing on Thursday night in a fibre boat owned by P Balavanian of Nambuthalai. Information on their arrest was shared with the officials in the state. Deputy director of fisheries for Ramanathapuram E Kathavarayan said they had forwarded the details to the state government.

“The state government has taken it up with the Centre to ensure the speedy release of the detained fishermen,” he added. Families of the detained fishermen have appealed to the state government and the Centre for speedy release of the fishermen and ensure that they are returned without any harm or heavy penalties. Fishermen associations expressed concern over continuance of such arrests despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Sri Lanka.

Tamilaga Kaldalora Visaipadagu Meenavar Nala Sangam advisor N Devadass said ever since the 61-day annual fishing ban concluded on June 15, there have been two arrests. “At least 10 fishermen have been detained in these incidents,” he said and lamented that the detention and attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen have gone up after the demise of former chief minister Jayalalithaa.

“She used to put pressure on the Centre and they used to take steps to expedite the release of fishermen and returning their boats. The release used to happen in a matter of less than two weeks. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a cordial relationship with Sri Lanka and visited the island nation few days back. But relief from arrests of our fishermen by the Lankan navy was not taken up,” he said.

Stating that the livelihood of at least 25 families depends on each boat, Devadass added that 150 boats are stranded there for nearly four years. “We could bring back only 35 of the 185 boats detained by them as the rest were damaged to such an extent that they cannot be used again. The state government should resume putting pressure on the Centre to release the men and the boats,” he added.