India, Lanka mull joint solution

NEW DELHI: India and Sri Lanka are exploring joint management of water resources to prevent incidents of fishermen being harassed or attacked. Both are also thinking on lines of making a limited pool of water for fishing for the same. The issues were discussed at length between the two countries at the Joint Working Group on Fisheries last week in the wake of incidents of Indian fishermen being harassed allegedly by the Sri Lankan Navy. India has also handed over a non-paper to the Lankan side on the initiatives that could be taken to prevent such incidents as the other side is not receptive to any formal agreement as it fears that there would be some legal implications. The two countries have also decided to promote greater interaction and cooperation between fishermen from both sides so that they understand each other’s problems and find ways to avoid any confrontation.  The ideas proposed by India include joint management of resources and making certain limited pool of water for fishing by fishermen from both countries and coming out new modes of fishing in the area. According to sources, the Sri Lankan government has been very cooperative in assisting Indian fishermen who get stranded in the sea and they were ‘assisted fairly’.India’s endeavour was to reach some ‘safe, secure and sustainable’ arrangement to make sure that the fishermen from both India and Sri Lanka are able to carry out their work without any difficult.