Chennai: The All-India Fishermen Congress would organize a black flag demonstration when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Rameswaram on February 28, Wednesday, to protest against the Union Government’s lackadaisical attitude in addressing the problems faced by fishermen setting out into the Palk Straits for their livelihood, TNCC president K Selvaperunthagai announced on Friday.
A day ahead of the black flag demonstration, the fishermen of Rameswaram would hold a human chain protest inside the Pambam sea to press for their demand for the release of fishermen and their boats by the Sri Lankan Navy, he said pointing to the BJP’s promise in 2013 at a ‘Sea Lotus Conference’ in Pamban to address the recurrent problem faced by the fishermen and prevent the arrests.
But between 2014 and February, 2024, Sri Lankan Navy had arrested 3179 fishermen and seized 400 boats which was a clear pointer to the Union Government’s failed foreign policy, Selvaperunthogai said and referred to the latest incident in which two boats that left Rameswaram harbor on February 3 were seized by Lankan Navy and the 23 fishermen on board were arrested.
He said that both the helmsmen of the boats were sentenced to six months jail terms and one fishermen for one year, which triggered a protest by fishermen in Rameswaram. Besides, the federation of Rameswaram fishermen’s associations had announced a relay fast and the boycott of the annual festival of St Antony’s church at Katchatheevu, he said.
Meanwhile, State Minister for Fisheries and Fishermen Welfare Anitha K Radhakrishnan accused the BJP of playing politics with the fishermen’s problem by dispatching Union Ministers to Rameswaram periodically to meet representatives of fishermen and give the false promises of solving their problems and also taking some of them to meet Ministers.
Radhakrishnan, in a statement, said the Union Government had refused permission to the State government to recover 10 boats of Tamil Nadu fishermen that were to be released by Sri Lanka though Chief Minister M K Stalin had sanctioned the necessary funds for it. He also blamed the Union Government for its failure to hold the Indo-Sri Lankan Joint Working Committee meeting after the last one was held on March 25, 2022.
While there were 49 fishermen from the State in Sri Lankan jails and 151 boats were still in custody, the Union Government had doing nothing about it despite giving promises to the local fishermen and it was the Chief Minister who had provided funds to the tune of Rs 6.84 crore as compensation for the damage suffered by boats when taken into custody, the Minister said.
