Tamil Nadu Congress chief for fresh fishermen talks

Chennai: TNCC president B. S. Gnanadesikan called upon the Centre and state governments to ensure another round of talks between the representatives of the Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan fishermen to resolve the fishing problems of the communities.

Contending that only parleys could solve the issue, the TNCC chief said the state government should arrange for the talks with the help of the Centre. He also asked the Centre to prevail upon Colombo to immediately halt the attacks on TN fishermen.

“State government officials should also ensure that fishermen did not use high power engines on their boats and ban them from using fishing nets that destroy marine wealth,” he told reporters at Madurai on Sunday. (Though the State Government had already expressed its keenness to resume the talks between the fisher representatives of both the countries, the second round of talks in Colombo failed to make progress.)

Mr Gnanadesikan who visited the Temple City in connection with a meeting of his party’s new office bearers at district and block levels, flayed the Centre for hiking the railway fares.

Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government had increased the railway fares without taking the Parliament into confidence, the senior Congress leader said when he served as Gujarat CM, Mr. Modi wrote to former PM Manmohan Singh, saying it was unfair to increase fares without placing the issue before Parliament. “But he did not seem to follow what he had sought earlier,” Mr Gnanadesikan added.