The Tamil Nadu government, which is keen to resolve the long-running conflict in the Palk Gulf, has been asked by the Ministry of External Affairs to submit a list of potential participants of the fishing community in the state and tentative dates for the proposed talks. Is. Its fishermen and northern provinces in Sri Lanka.
reply soon
“We will send our reply soon,” sources in the government said. Moreover, in response to another request by the state government for an India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting on fisheries, the ministry had informed the former about a week ago that it had recently taken up the matter with the neighbour. was addressed. Country.
The proposed talks assume significance in the backdrop of the arrest of 55 Tamil Nadu fishermen and seizure of eight trawlers by the Sri Lankan Navy on Sunday. Fishermen on Monday staged a sit-in in Rameswaram demanding the release of the arrested members.
While the last round of fisherman level talks took place in November 2016 in New Delhi, the JWG meeting was held in December 2020 through virtual mode. Between 2010 and 2016, there were several rounds of meetings between fishermen’s representatives of the two countries.
The Joint Working Group has held four meetings since December 2016. In September 2020, during the virtual bilateral summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa agreed to “continue engagement to resolve fishermen-related issues through regular consultations and bilateral channels”. ,
Sources say that for five to six months, the state government was following up with the Center regarding fishermen-level talks and JWG meeting. The impact of the pandemic is said to have come in the way of the group holding its traditional meeting.
To expedite the pace of implementation of the deep sea fishing scheme, which was launched in July 2017 to resolve the Palk Gulf dispute and improve livelihood opportunities for fishermen, the state government asked the Center to transfer the unit. requested to increase. The cost of ships ranges from ₹80 lakh to ₹1.2 crore, figure mentioned in the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.
So far the construction work of 42 boats has been completed under the scheme. 43 more in progress. Work orders have been issued to a total of 105 beneficiaries. An amount of about ₹ 31 crore was released to the beneficiaries. Being funded by the central and state governments with beneficiary participation, the scheme originally envisaged the provision of 2,000 vessels over three years to the fishermen of the state and motivated them to give up trawling downstream .
Pointing out that the cost factor is a serious problem for fishermen, an expert in the field of fisheries suggests that an agency of the state government should be entrusted with the task of procuring deep sea vessels, which in turn are hired. can go. Fishermen, who are using bottom trawlers. Fishermen may be advised to form organizations on the lines of cooperatives or farmer producer groups.
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