Tamil Nadu fisheries delegation on ‘goodwill’ visit to test the waters
Afour-member delegation representing fisheries organisations in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, arrived in the country yesterday for discussions with their local counterparts, and a possible meeting with government leaders, a senior official said yesterday.
“The group is here purely on a goodwill mission with no official tag, but a request to meet with government leaders, including President Maithripala Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Northern Province Chief Minister (CM) C.V. Wigneswaran, is under consideration, but not confirmed, Fisheries Secretary N.D. Hettiarachchi told the Sunday Times.
He said the group is billed to discuss matters of mutual interest with their local counterparts mainly in the north and try to ease the tension of the fish workers on both sides of the Palk Strait.
Indo-Lanka Fishermen’s Welfare Programme- Advisor, S.P. Anthonymuttu said the Indian group led by Indo-Lanka Fishermen’s Welfare Association- President, N. Devadas, will meet with several local fisher groups for discussions centred on the simmering fishing issues faced by fishermen on both sides of the Palk Strait.
He added that the group was also hopeful to meet CM Wigneswaran and other government leaders, and that a request towards this end had already been made, but that they were yet to receive a favourable response.
The Indian fisher groups are confident they could work in a friendlier manner with the present administration, which was not the case with the previous regime.
The delegation is due to leave on Wednesday and will also extend an invitation to Lankan fisher representatives to visit Chennai at the very earliest.
Meanwhile, in a related development, Myanmar authorities have released a group of 17 Sri Lankan fishermen along with their three vessels which had been detained since October 2014, for allegedly poaching in Myanmar’s territorial waters, Foreign Ministry officials said.
They said that Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had given a special directive to Sri Lanka’s Embassy in Myanmar, to intervene with the relevant authorities to secure a speedy release of these 17 fishermen who had been detained in Myan- mar for a prolonged period.
A delegation comprising officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources visited Myanmar recently on the instructions of Deputy Foreign Minister, Ajith P. Perera and held wide ranging meetings with the relevant political authorities and officials in this regard, they said. The released fishermen are to return to the country once immigration and airline formalities are completed, they said.