Sri Lanka agrees to release the 10 boats of Indian Fishermen

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Jun 17 2018 10:15 AM
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Sri Lanka agrees to release the 10 boats of Indian Fishermen

According to reports, the Sri Lankan Navy has agreed to release ten Indian fishermen's boats that were earlier arrested in the years 2015 and 2016. There is information that the Sri Lankan government on June 13 had sent a letter to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) India, stating that they were ready to release ten boats. In the year 2017, 42 boats out of the 216 boats, were released by Sri Lanka. While, according to sources, the fishermen were able to take back only 32 boats and the remaining ten boats were in destroyed and couldn't be repaired. According to the recent news, the Sri Lankan government will be releasing another 10 boats in return of the boats that were couldn't be retrieved in the year 2017. A team shall be leaving for Sri Lanka within 2 days. The team shall be headed by a fisheries official, including fishermen and salvage personnel. The fishermen have demanded that all the 174 boats that were taken into custody by the Sri Lankan Government, should be released. The fishermen have suffered a great loss since each boat is of the worth Rs 8 to 10 lakh. The Colombo Page, quoted jesuraj who is a Tamil Fishermen leader, saying, "We will go and check the boats in Sri Lanka but we demand that all our boats in the Sri Lankan custody be released." Even the Sri Lankan fishermen have suggested that the boats of the Indian Fishermen in Sri Lanka's arrest should either be disposed off or returned to them. Colombo Page quoted a Sri Lankan fisherman saying, "The seed boats are docked in our shore and it is so difficult for us to go to the sea for fishing. The tied boats tend to move astray and hit with the neighboring damaging the docked boats as well as ours." It is being expected that the Indo-Sri Lankan officials would meet on July 4, in Delhi to discuss the various issues of the Tamil fishermen .