NEW DELHI: With increasing number of fishermen from Tamil Nadu landing in troubled waters of the Gulf, the Indian embassy in Doha has requested the State government to sensitise the fishermen on the issue before they take up fishing jobs in far-off countries.Fishermen from the State have been getting arrested by Qatari authorities regularly for intruding into its territorial waters. Five Indian fishermen were sentenced in Qatar as recent as this July.At present there are 40 TN fishermen in Qatar jail after they were caught crossing over from Bahrain waters inadvertently. This year 60 fishermen have been jailed and they were released after diplomatic pressure.Seeing no decrease in the number of cases, the Doha mission has written a letter asking the State to give “orientation and training” to the fishermen on the maritime rules prevailing in the Gulf. The Doha mission had written a letter earlier also on the same matter. The mission has also sent a letter to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs asking it to take up the matter with the TN government. It has also sent a list of suggestions to be taken up at the consultative meeting the ministry is holding with state governments.An official with the Government told Express that the Centre has already conveyed the matter to the Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa when she met Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai to discuss the attacks on TN fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy.“TN Government has been pre-occupied with the attack from the Sri Lankan navy because this issue is more close to the land and heart,” said the official.Jayalalithaa herself had taken up the cause and had termed the attacks on TN fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy “as an act of provocation and aggression against India by Sri Lanka...” The official said that the TN Government has now realised that Gulf waters is also turning out to be “problematic” .Most of the arrested fishermen are employed in Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia and normally they are charged with attacking Qatari Coast Guard personnel and fishing illegally. Once arrested, their employers normally do not secure their release by paying a fine.According to fishermen groups, dwindling fish stock force fishermen to venture into the territorial waters of other countries. Most of the fishermen are from Kanyakumari district, which has sent around 10,000 fishermen to the Gulf.
Comments
0 comment