Mannar fishermen woes spotlighted

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 September 2006, 13:17 GMT]
Fishermen of Mannar district are finding difficult to market their produce to Colombo due to stringent checks carried out by the Sri Lanka Army at every checkpoint along the route. Checks are carried out first in Mannar town before being loaded in lorries and there after boxes of fish are unloaded again in check points in Madawachchi and others along the route.

Due to the inordinate delay in reaching Colombo due to these checks, fish being transported to Colombo are getting damaged and rejected by fish vendors in Colombo as unmarketable. Those who transport these fish are forced to bring back the stock to Mannar incurring heavy expenditure, fisheries societies' federation in Mannar states in a memorandum to the Mannar Government Agent.

Mannar Fisheries Societies Federation has requested the Government Agent to make arrangement with the Sri Lanka Army to conduct the check on fish being transported to Colombo only in Mannar town itself and not in other checkpoints located along Colombo bound road.

Seventy five percent of Mannar people are engaged in fishing and live on the income derived by the sale of fish in Colombo and other parts in the south of the country, said a memorandum handed over to the Government Agent with copies to the relevant ministry and Vanni district parliamentarians.