Many fishermen were brought back to homeland since 2014: MoS Murugan

Reacting to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's statement about attacks on fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy, Union Minister of State, L Murugan said that since 2014, more importance is being given to bring back the fishermen of the state.

Murugan also said that the situation has changed positively since 2014 and many fishermen have been saved.

The Union MoS for Fisheries, Information and Broadcasting said, "It is only after 2014, that fishermen's welfare funds and schemes got doubled. Before 2014, more than 500 Fishermen died. But now the situation has changed. A lot of fishermen were saved and brought to their homeland and very few are left in Sri Lanka," Murugan said.

He added, "Even we are also taking steps to bring them back to their homeland".

Earlier, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin had slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre alleging that "attacks on Tamil Nadu fishermen have continued under the Modi government".

He further said that the BJP government is a "weak government".

Meanwhile, 15 fishermen from the Rameshwaram district, who were released from Sri Lankan prison, were welcomed by BJP on their arrival in Chennai on Thursday.

They were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy Police on July 8 for allegedly crossing the border and fishing in the area that falls under Sri Lankan jurisdiction.

Following the arrest, the fishermen were produced before the court and were later remanded to judicial custody.

Their case came up for hearing in the Oorkavalthurai court on July 21, and the judge ordered the release of all 15 fishermen.

Notably, their release came days after Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe's official visit to India. During his visit, Sri Lankan President also had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Palk Strait, which is a narrow strip of water separating Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka, is a rich fishing ground for fishermen from both countries and because of that fishermen keep on going to the area and end up entering Sri Lankan water.