A timely decision

One by one, all features of the former life in the North are re-emerging signalling the gradual return to normality in this once blood spattered landscape. On Friday, the Government announced the lifting of all fishing restrictions in the Peninsula permitting the people to resume one of their key livelihoods.

The Jaffna fishermen would now be allowed unhampered fishing round the clock. This was restricted to four days a week up to a distance of two kilometres from the coast.

Making the announcement at Karainagar on Friday Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa MP said the Government had also decided to relax the limit on outboard engines and that the fishermen could now use outboard engines up to a 15 horsepower capacity. He told the gathering that fishermen could also now send their harvests to the Colombo market through the A 9 highway.

Along with agriculture the fisheries sector was the mainstay of the Northern economy in the past. The war dealt a body blow to this chief means of livelihood of the Northerner making him impoverished, broken from his moorings. Now he can breathe a huge sigh of relief that once again he will be back at sea reaping the bounties of the Jaffna sea.

In this regard, one recalls the time in the past when convoys of lorries arrived at the Colombo fish market with the rich harvests of the North. This not only gave an opportunity to the people in the South to sample the marine delicacies of the North but also brought down the price of fish considerably. Hopefully, this would be the case once again when fish from the North enters the Southern market.

However, lifting fishing restrictions alone would not solve the problems of the Northern fisherman. There is a need to rebuild the entire fishing infrastructure that had been destroyed by the war.

For example, all the damaged fisheries harbours have to be rebuilt. Besides the fishermen have to be provided with some form of capital to get back on their feet since they have long been reduced to an impoverished state by the loss of this chief livelihood.

The Government should consider starting a loan scheme to help out these fishermen to get started and gradually established. With the many State banks about to fan out into North setting up branches such assistance may be arranged. It should also think of starting Fisheries Cooperative Societies that had ceased to exist during the war years.

The North could also be an ideal venue for starting up a canned fish factory with an eye on the export market. It is indeed a sad indictment on us that being an island nation we still import canned fish spending valuable foreign exchange.

The irony of it is that these are the very fish caught in our seas by poachers with special deep sea fishing craft. The idea had been mooted by many Fisheries Ministers down the years for starting such a canned fish industry. But so far, no headway has been made while we continue to import canned fish into the country.

This would be the ideal time to reflect on such a project as part of the Uthuru Vasanthaya (Northern Spring) program. With the stated objective of the Government to redevelop the North in uniformity with the South, such a project would not only be an appropriate gift to the long suffering Northerner but would also spell economic renaissance to the devastated region.

Madhu festival

Another sign that the North is slowly but surely coming back to its own is reflected by the decision taken by the Catholic Church to hold this year’s feast of Our Lady of Madhu on a grand scale.

The news of resumption of the Madhu feast in all its past glory and splendour no doubt would have been received with much jubilation by the Catholics of this country whose annual trek to this hallowed jungle shrine was a major landmark in their spiritual life.

The church expects over 500,000 devotees to attend the August 15th feast rekindling the past when masses of humanity converged on the shrine from all four corners of the country.

The Security Forces took control of the Madhu area last year and the main shrine had also been refurbished by the Army. The annual Madhu feasts were held even during the times of conflict but not on a permanent basis and crowds that came were nowhere near the numbers that once attended the annual feast.

The chief reason was that the crowds had to proceed through LTTE check points and there was always the fears of being trapped during a sudden outbreak of hostilities.

One of the pledges made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa during his Presidential campaign was that he would liberate Madhu and allow unhindered passage to pilgrims to the holy shrine. He has now achieved this and no doubt all Catholics of this country would be ever grateful to him for this deed.

They could now resume their annual journey to the sylvan shrine from all corners of the country as in the past to fulfil their spiritual vows, a journey that was ruthlessly cut short by three decades of terrorism that is now behind us.