TAMIL NADU :CPIM MEMORANDUM TO GOVERNOR REGARDING GRIEVANCES OF FISHERMEN

MEMORANDUM

Presented to

His Excellency Surjith Singh Barnala

By the

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Tamil Nadu State Committee

25 January 2010

His Excellency Surjith Sign Barnala

Governor of Tamil Nadu, Raj Bhawan, Guindy, Chennai

Your Excellency

We thank your Excellency for the opportunity granted to us to present in person this memorandum on the plight of the fishermen community in Tamil Nadu. We shall be grateful if your Excellency could bestow benign consideration on the issues raised herein and make appropriate recommendations to the Government of India for addressing the same.

Attacks by the Srilankan Navy on the Tamil Nadu fisherman venturing into the sea waters from Rameswaram and other costal areas in the State have become a daily occurrence. There have been innumerable instances of fishermen being shot dead and imprisoned, boat seized or destroyed, damaging of fishing nets, confiscation of the seafood catch et al indulged in by the Sri Lankan Navy. Despite vociferous protests not bony by the fishermen community but also by all the political parties in the state, these attacks continue unabated. Though the Government of Tamil Nadu has repeatedly been urging the Government of India to intervene to stop these attacks, very little appears to have been done. As if rubbing salt over injury, the Government of India had only been issuing periodical advisories to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu no to violate the maritime boundary and desist from entering the sea waters of Sri Lankan territory.

We may point out here that the sea-bed between Sri lanka and the southern coastline of India is a narrow one. It is difficult for the fishermen to strictly confine their fishing activity within the maritime boundary of our country. Unforeseeable weather conditions resulting in rough winds and tides may jostle the fishing boats and push them a couple of nautical miles beyond the maritime border. This is also the case with the Srilankan fishermen as well, as is evident from reports of arrests of Sri Lankan fishermen by coast guard of India and their subsequent release. We strongly urge that the Government of India should take up this matter with the Government of Srilanka and ensure that Tamil Nadu fishermen are extended unfettered fishing rights in this area,

There is absolutely no justification for the Sri Lankan Navy to resort to firing, arrest, confiscation etc. measures against Tamil Nadu fishermen. Earlier at least when the Elam War IV was on, Sri Lankan authorities were leveling allegation of fishing boats form Tamil Nadu being clandestinely used for smuggling ammunition and essential supplies for the LTTE. Now that the Government of Sri Lanka had declared that Eelam War IV has ended and terrorism within Sri Lanka extinguished, there is no basis to entertain such allegations. Hence , the extreme measures resorted by the Sri Lankan Navy are unjustified and sheer acts of provocation. Government of India should seriously prevail upon the Srilankan Government to reign in their Navy and stop them from indulging in such extreme measures. Government of India should also extend full protection to the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and provide the coast guard with adequate vessels to escort the fishing boats.

Another area of serious concern to the fishermen community of Tamil Nadu as well as of other states is the move by the Government of India to legislate the “Traditional coastal and Marine Fisher folk (Protection of Rights) Act” introduced as a Bill in Parliament. The proposed legislation seeking to restrict the rights of the fishermen to 12 nautical miles from the coast and to impose rigorous conditions like licensing, registration etc are totally against the interests of fishermen community. Though the Union minister for Agriculture has announced that the bill would not be taken up for immediate enactment, the legislation is hanging like a Damocles’ Sword over the heads of our fishermen. The Bill pending before parliament should immediately be withdrawn and Government of India should categorically declare that no such legislation would be attempted in future.

We earnestly request Your Excellency to kindly initiate immediate measures, as may be deemed appropriate, to impress upon the Government of India to redress the grievances and accede to the demands elaborated above.

Thanking Yours Excellency and with regards

Yours Sincerely

Sd/

N Varadarajan

Secretary, State Committee

(photo : Gavaskar, Theekathir)