SL Govt relaxes fishing restriction in East

Colombo, June 22: The Sri Lanka government has largely relaxed a long imposed fishing restrictions in the Eastern province with the military claiming to have captured over 95 per cent of the LTTE strongholds in the East and was closing in on the last base in the eastern Thoppigala jungles.

The government has also ordered tough actions against all foreign vessels poaching in Sri Lankan territorial waters.

The government in its accelerated process to restore normalcy in the east yesterday relaxed the long imposed fishing restrictions on the eastern province, a Defence Ministry report said.

Claiming that the decision to relax the fishing restriction was taken at a special discussion held at the President's office last evening, it said that the fishing restrictions were imposed on the coastal belt between Kirinda and Puttalm long time ago after LTTE started attacking the security forces in guise of local fishermen.

At the meeting it was decided to extend the time limits allowed for fishing in the restricted areas and to provide other facilities imperative for the growth of the industry, the Defence Ministry report said.

Earlier, the fishermen were allowed to engage in fishing in the restricted zone only 12-hours during the day time for four days a week.

Under the eased conditions, the time is extended up to 0004 hrs to 1800hrs and the number of days is also increased to five days a week, the Defence Ministry said, expressing hopes that this would enable the single day and multi day fishing vessels to fish in deeper waters.

The ban on fishing on the Cod Bay in the Trincomalee sea since 1986 has also been lifted with immediate affect.

At the meeting presided over by Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa, who is also a younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakasa, the Sri Lankan Navy was ordered to apprehend all foreign fishing vessels engage in poaching in Sri Lankan waters while the responsibility for taking legal action on the poachers was entrusted on the Ministry of Fisheries.

Indian fishermen are often sighted and apprehended in the north-eastern territorial waters, an issue that has led to many controversies between the two neighbouring countries.

UNI

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