'Jt patrolling of IMBL not to help Indian fishermen'

Chennai, Mar 14: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi todaychanged his stance on the joint patrolling of International MaritimeBoundary Line (IMBL) by Indian and Sri Lankan navies, saying it wouldnot help to protect the Indian fishermen from attacks of Sri Lankannavy.

Two days after welcoming Sri Lanka's reported proposal for a jointmonitoring of IMBL, saying such a mechanism would ensure the safety offishermen of the state, Mr Karunanidhi, answering a set of questions,said though it (joint patrolling) sounds good, it would only result indisadvantages.

To a question whether India accepted the proposal, he said itmight sound nice if the Centre gave its nod, but it was widely feltthat there would be more disadvantages than advantages of such jointpatrolling.

''Many expressed concern that it should not be like a story of frog and rat coming together and tying their legs,'' he quipped.

The Joint patrolling proposal was conveyed to a DMK delegation onMarch 12, when it presented a memorandum to the Sri Lankan Deputy HighCommissioner here against the attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen by SriLankan Navy.

Mr Karunanidhi, who had initially expressed the hope that suchjoint monitoring could provide necessary protection to the fishermen,denied reports in a section of the media yesterday that he had notagreed to the proposal and it was for the Centre to decide on the issue.

The joint patrolling proposal, though initially welcomed by MrKarunanidhi, drew flak from political and other quarters in the state.Tamil National Movement leader Pa Nedumaran had expressed shock andwarned that the proposal was only a ploy by Colombo to let the Indiannavy take on the LTTE's sea tigers.

Answering a question on the fate of Indian fishermen, who weresubjected to attacks by the Sri Lankan navy, Mr Karunanidhi said whenDMK brought a Calling Attention motion on the issue in Parliamentyesterday, Defence Minister A K Antony had assured of all steps toprotect the legal rights of Indian fishermen.

Mr Antony had also said the Centre was seriously discussing theissue with the Sri Lankan government and the Indian Naval Chief waskeeping in touch with his Sri Lanka counterpart to protect the interestof Indian fishermen, Mr Karunanidhi pointed out.

Meanwhile, more than 10,000 fishermen in Rameswaram, who hadstruck work for the last two days, ventured into the sea for fishingtoday, even as the high-level team of Coast Guard and State policepersonnel inspected the problematic areas along the IMBL offRameswaram.

The fishermen demanded that the State and Central governmentssolve the problem of firing by the Sri Lankan navy on them, when theyventured into the high seas for fishing.

UNI

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