Radha Mohan Singh to discuss fishermen issue in Colombo

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh is visiting Colombo, Sri Lanka to participate in a high-level meeting to discuss the issue of fishermen between the two countries.

He is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising of senior officials from his ministry, navy, coast guard and fisheries department of Tamil Nadu.

The meeting to be held later in the day will be participated by Fisheries Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Amaraweera and Foreign Minister Mangala Samarweera.

It comes a couple of days after Joint Working Group on Fisheries (JWGF) met in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss the issue.

The JWGF consists only of civil and military officials of Sri Lanka and India and is supposed to meet every three months as per agreement reached between the two countries last November.

The main issues to be discussed in today's meeting are measures to prevent Indian fishermen from crossing the International Maritime Boundary, release of fishermen and boats detained in Sri Lanka, and the joint preservation and development of resources in the sea between the two countries.

While the fishermen from Southern states have been demanding release of their fellow fishermen and trawlers, their counterpart in Sri Lanka assert that bottom trawling used by Indian fishermen has caused extensive damage to the marine eco system.