Karunanidhi urges PM to restore fishing rights of Indian fishermen

Chennai, Sep 22 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to restore the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen in the waters in and around Katchathivu and work out a perpetual lease of Katchathivu for fishing and drying of nets In a letter to the Prime Minister, copy of which was released to the media here, the chief minister wanted Dr Singh to impress upon the Sri Lankan government to instruct their Navy to desist from harming innocent Indians, more specifically fishermen of Tamil Nadu, who solely depend on fishing in these waters for their livelihood.

''I would be grateful if you could kindly look into this and use your good offices to resolve this long pending issue,'' the chief minister said.

In the recent past, a number of incidents of attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy on fishermen of Tamil Nadu have caused great distress and hardships to the coastal fishermen of Tamil Nadu. This is a matter of great concern to the state government, he said.

On September eight, reports were received regarding the inhuman act of the Sri Lankan Navy when they intercepted four Tamilian fishermen of Sirvathur, took away their catches, manhandled and pushed them out of the boat into the sea, ordering them to swim to safety.

Two of these fishermen were feared to have drowned as they could not be rescued. ''What is pertinent to note is that all the four fishermen were fishing within the Indian territorial waters, south east of Vedaranyam,'' Mr Karunanidhi said.

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