RAMESWARAM: The usually busy fishing harbour here turned desolate on Monday as the fisher-folk community began an indefinite strike, demanding action by the Sri Lankan and Indian governments on their long-pending charter of demands.
Hundreds of trawlers and mechanised boats kept bay as fishermen did not put out to sea in pursuance of their decision and rendering nearly 10,000 daily fish workers jobless despite the hardships they have to undergo because of the strike.
P Sesuraju, the mechanised fishermen’s association secretary here said that their demands included Sri Lanka “immediately returning” 78 trawlers they had impounded in recent months and releasing six of their fishermen arrested allegedly for straying into their waters while fishing in the Palk straits.
The protesting fishermen also demanded compensation to 18 of their trawlers which have sunk under circumstances triggered by the continued harassment by the Sri Lankan Navy whenever Rameswaram fishermen go fishing near Katchatheevu island, besides appropriate actions by the Central and Tamil Nadu governments to take up these issues with their Sri Lankan counterpart for effective redress.
