HC notice to Centre, TN on rehab of fishermen's kin

The Madras High Court Tuesday issued notice to the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government on a PIL seeking sanction of funds to rehabilitate families of fishermen in the state affected due to attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy.

A division bench comprising Justice M Sathyanarayanan and Justice P Rajamanickam, before which the public interest litigation petition from "Fishermen Care" came up, issued the notice to the governments and asked them to file affidavits with supporting documents before January 10, 2019.

The petitioner alleged that human right violations were being committed against the fishermen by the Lankan Navy personnel while they go fishing in the Palk Strait.

He claimed that 111 Tamil Nadu fishermen had been killed between 1983 to 2013 by the Lankan Navy and that 16 fishermen were either missing or feared shot dead. Besides, a total of 439 fisherman had been injured in the attacks, he submitted.

The petitioner submitted that the human rights violations were the offshoot of "the blunder" committed by India in ceding Katchatheevu islet to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.

He claimed that according to the agreement signed by India and Sri Lanka in 1974, the customary rights of both countries to engage in fishing in the waters of Palk Strait were retained, but yet the Indian fishermen had been attacked.

Considering the petitioner's repeated representations to formulate welfare schemes to rehabilitate the families of the fishermen, the union government, had in 2017, granted Rs 200 crore for the purpose.

But no further action was taken, the petitioner alleged, and cited the futile representations he had made this year to both the governments for the scheme. Hence the present PIL, he said.