The local fishermen have decided to call off their indefinite strike and resume fishing from Monday after the Tamil Nadu government announced that all the 86 fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on charges of poaching would be released on October 28.
After the Tamil Nadu Fisheries department confirmed the news about the release of the fishermen, leaders of 11 fishermen associations met here on Sunday and decided to call off the strike, Mr P Sesu Raja, leader of a fishermen association said.
Thanking the State and Central governments for securing the release, a day after the fishermen launched the strike on Saturday and observed a day’s fast, he said the Sri Lankan government refusing to release the boats continued to be a cause of worry.
The thirty-nine trawlers confiscated by the Sri Lankan Navy while arresting the fishermen from Ramanathapuram, Tuticorin, Nagapattinam and Pudukottai districts during September-October faced the danger of getting damaged as the north-east monsoon is around the corner, he said.
Withholding the trawlers amounted to destroying the livelihood of the fishermen, as at least 40 fishermen and their families were dependent on one boat for eking out a living, he said. “Forty fishermen go jobless when a boat is confiscated,” he said, the Hindu reports.
