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)

Abducted CPI(M) Leader Released

Comrade Ananda Masi Horo, the popular tribal leader and two time zila parishad member in Sundargarh district, Orissa, who was abducted by Maoists on January 23 was found alive in an unconscious state by local people. The earlier report given by the police that he had been killed was erroneous. However the Maoist depredations in the area continue. Their armed gangs this morning have kidnapped another tribal leader working in the CITU affiliated mine workers union threatening the workers to leave the union.

Andhra Pradesh : Left for all-party meeting on price rise

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India have demanded that the government convene an all-party meeting to discuss about the spiralling rise in prices of essential commodities and evolve an action plan.

CPI (M) State secretary B.V. Raghavulu said that the government had the responsibility to keep prices under control as “its wrong policies imposed back-breaking burden” on the common man while his CPI counterpart K. Narayana threatened to launch de-hoarding drive to unearth the essential commodities hidden by traders. The two Left parties demanded that the government fulfil its promise of enhancing the quota of rice for BPL families to 30 kg and reduce State taxes on petroleum products to bring down the prices.

Chalo Delhi

Mr. Raghavulu and Dr. Narayana were participating in a seminar on price rise organised jointly by the two parties on Sunday in line with preparations for the March 12 ‘Chalo Delhi’ call given by them. They expressed concern over the recent hike in value added tax in Andhra Pradesh claiming that the State government was going against the Centre’s directive in this regard.

Mr. Raghavulu criticised the government for trying to pass the blame of sky-rocketing prices to natural calamities and accused the administration of failing to secure the required assistance from the Centre for floods and drought.

Dr. Narayana ridiculed the government, Civil Supplies Minister Jupalli Krishna Rao in particular, for allowing hoarders go scot-free while cases were registered against the CPI leaders who exposed the hoarded stocks. CPI senior leader K. Ramakrishna, CPI (M) senior leader P. Madhu and others also spoke.

(Courtesy : The Hindu)

RICH TRIBUTES TO COMRADE JYOTHI BASU

 

Thousands of supporters and admirers of veteran Marxist leader Jyoti Basu assembled at the Shahid Minar here on Sunday for a condolence meeting held a week after his death on January 17.

Leaders from a wide spectrum of political parties, including representatives from Nepal and Bangladesh, were present. “While it is said of Communists that they are opposed to democracy, Jyoti Basu, in his life, fulfilled the duty of establishing democracy not just in West Bengal, but also in the country…Although he was sent to prison, he never sent his political opponents to jail; even if a law was unjust he never took the law into his own hands and he never took action against a newspaper for criticising him,” West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said.

Basu’s first act as Chief Minister was to free all political prisoners, irrespective of party affiliation. West Bengal was also the first State to have a human rights commission, he said.

“Comrade Jyoti Basu continuously endeavoured to establish and strengthen the system of parliamentary democracy in the State and in the country,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said: “Of the many leaders who have contributed and made sacrifices for the Communist movement in India, Jyoti Basu was exemplary and one of the most distinguished.”

Emphasising the Marxist leader’s contribution in mobilising the peasants and workers’ movements, Mr. Karat said that in his term as Chief Minister, Basu realised the vision of “land to the tiller” — envisaged during the freedom struggle — by providing land to 25-lakh landless labourers.

He supported the anti-racial movements in Vietnam, Cuba, South Africa, while also backing Palestine, thus contributing to the international struggle against fascism and imperialism, Mr. Karat said.

“Emulate the example”

Describing Basu as “a Communist voice of South Asia,” Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) leader Jhala Nath Khanal said Communists in Nepal, representing 60 per cent of the population, needed to emulate the example set by him in bringing different parties together.

Remembering the support extended to the people of Bangladesh by Basu during the 1971 Liberation War, Rashid Khan Menon, a parliamentarian, spoke on the significant role played by him in forging India-Bangladesh ties. Sajjad Zahir Chandan of the Bangladesh Communist Party and Moinuddin Khan Badal of the Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal echoed his sentiments.

Tremendous respect

“Though we were opposed to the politics of Jyoti Basu, there was always tremendous respect for him. I have no difficulty in saying that he is perhaps the most important of the mass leaders who have achieved this stature,” said Subrata Mukherjee, Working President of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.

There was no representative from the Trinamool Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Bahujan Samajwadi Party chief Mayawati had expressed their desire to attend, but could not do so.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau members Sitaram Yechury, Biman Bose, Mohammed Amin and Nirupam Sen and other senior leaders were present.