Sri Lankan fishermen’s representatives, who are all set to visit India for the mutual talks scheduled on Monday, appealed to their Indian counterparts to send representatives who are genuine fishermen, who can understand the plight of both the sides.

 

According to sources from Sri Lanka, the 15-member team consists of a few officials and 10 fishermen leaders from Mannar, Jaffna, Kilinochi, Negombo, Puttalam and Trincomalee. They will be coming to Chennai on Sunday. As of now, the talks have been scheduled for one day. We may explore the possibilities of extending it, but it would be decided at the later point of the meeting, the fishermen leaders said. Justin Soysa, president of Mannar district federation of fishermen associations, said they are optimistic that the talks will yield positive results. But at the same time, he stressed that the representatives should be real fishermen. "During previous meets, the representatives from both the sides weren't real-time fishermen. Hence they couldn't arrive at consensus," he opined.

 

Meanwhile, the fishermen leaders in Rameswaram said they are yet to be notified about the names of people, who will be representing their area. B Jesuraja, district secretary of Tamil Nadu mechanised boat fishermen association, said, they may receive the information by Friday or Saturday.

 

"We would request them to allow fishing in traditional fishing grounds for a few more months with an assurance that it would be reduced in the future. Moreover, we are also planning to gradually give up trawling method. We have already made an appeal to the state government about our willingness to handover the boats under buy-back scheme to reduce the pressure on fishing in Palk Bay."(The Times of India)