A team, comprising 10 leaders of fishermen and nine officials from Sri Lanka, will be participating in the talks between the fishermen’s associations of Sri Lanka and India to be held in Chennai on March 24 and 25, officials said today (21).

This will be the third time the fishermen’s associations of the two countries are meeting to thrash out the issue of fishing in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay.

The first meeting was held in Chennai on January 27, 2014, and the second was held in Colombo on May 12, 2014. However, these talks had failed to resolve the issues.

While Sri Lankan fishermen have been complaining about brazen poaching with bottom trawlers by fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Puduchery, Indian fishermen have been claiming that they have a “traditional right” to fish in these waters and that Sri Lankan fishermen should see it as a livelihood and humanitarian issue.

Recently, Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had said in two media interviews that Lanka has the right to shoot intruders, an assertion which raised political hackles in India.

In the meantime, India and Sri Lanka had agreed to release the fishermen and boats simultaneously. Recently, 43 fishermen and 34 boats were repatriated to India. India has also released Lankan fishermen who were in its custody. As on date, there is no Indian fishermen in custody of Lanka, though 50 Indian boats remain to be repatriated.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)