More than 650 mechanised fishing boats remained anchored in the Rameshwaram harbour on Monday as part of the one-day strike called by fishermen demanding immediate release of a boat and six Rameshwaram fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday. The call was given by the Federation of All Mechanised Boats Fishermen Associations.
Fishermen leader P. Sesuraja said the Centre and the State should also take steps to retrieve over 80 mechanised boats and 10 country boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy between 2018 and 2022. “Each mechanised boat would cost around ₹25 lakh to ₹1 crore. The families of the fishermen have lost their livelihood in the absence of boats,” he said.
The Centre should get the Sri Lankan government to immediately release all the seized boats and the arrested fishermen. Recalling that the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government were giving economic assistance to the crisis-hit Sri Lanka, Mr. Sesuraja said that when the Indian government was magnanimous towards the island nation, he wondered why the Sri Lankan Navy was treating the Tamil Nadu fishermen with indifference. Today, 25,000 fishermen families have lost their livelihood because of the strike. If the Centre and the State fail to bring back the boats, we would organise a State-wide agitation very soon,” he said.