SLA prevents deepening tsunami affected jetties in north

[TamilNet, Sunday, 27 February 2005, 15:52 GMT]
A conference has been summoned for Tuesday to settle the dispute between the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) and Vadamaradchchi fisheries societies over the deepening about twenty-one fisheries jetties affected from Thondamannaru in the Vadamaradchchi north to Munai point in Point Pedro coast affected by tsunami. Monitors of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna district and the Government Agent have been invited for the conference, fisheries sources said.

Sewa Lanka, a non-governmental organization has allocated about 7.8 million rupees for the deepening project. Deepening of one fisheries jetty in Supparmadam has been completed.

However work on other fisheries jetties are not completed as the SLA prevented such works until further notice citing security reasons, sources said.

The Northern fishermen are finding very difficult to anchor their fishing crafts safely as these jetties are covered with debris washed ashore by tsunami waves, sources said.

The out come of the conference scheduled to be held on is widely expected in the fisheries circles will reach agreement on deepening of fisheries jetties and normalizing fishing industry after tsunami, sources said.