The Ministry of Fisheries has provided Rs. 216.5 million to the relevant District Secretariats to pay as compensation to 12,111 fishing vessel owners and fishermen in the Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts who lost their livelihoods due to the burning of the X-Press Pearl containership. Accordingly, Rs. 150 million has been paid for the fishermen in the Gampaha District, Rs. 52.67 million for the fishermen in the Colombo District and Rs. 13.83 million for the fishermen in the Kalutara District and the compensation has been credited to their bank accounts.
Kanchana Wijesekera, State Minister of Fisheries disclosed this information during an online discussion on the progress of paying compensation to the fishermen in the sea area which is a no fishing zone, with the members of the committee, officials of the Ministry of Fisheries and the Department of Fisheries, the Fathers of the Catholic Church and representatives of those fisheries organizations.
Due to the damage to the ship, fishing from Panadura to Negombo (Ma Oya) was suspended and declared a no-go zone. The ship caught fire on May 20 in Sri Lankan waters and the insurance company had paid Rs. 720 million as the first installment (May 20-June 01) as compensation for the damage caused to the marine environment due to the fire. President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has also instructed that Rs. 420 million from the first tranche of the interim compensation be given to the fishermen who have been directly affected by the loss of fishing industry.
The first installment of this interim compensation will be paid to fishermen in 27 sectors in the Gampaha, Colombo and Kalutara districts. The next stage will be to compensate the stakeholders in the fishing industry who have lost indirect income due to the suspension of fishing in the relevant maritime zone. State Minister Kanchana Wijesekera says that the necessary information has been obtained and the compensation will be credited to their bank accounts soon.