CHENNAI: The PMK and VCK on Tuesday urged the Centre to withdraw the Marine Fisheries (Regulation and Management) Bill.
Strongly condemning the Bill, PMK founder S Ramadoss, in a statement here, said the Centre should give up any move to amend certain clauses and pass it in Parliament. ‘‘‘s the Bill is totally detrimental to the livelihood of the fishermen, it should be withdrawn completely’’, he said.
Already, the TN fishermen had been facing the illeffects of gifting Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, Ramadoss said and added that the new Bill would completely wipe out their livelihood. Besides, the legislation was impractical to implement.The PMK would not hesitate to launch an agitation against this Bill, Ramadoss warned.
The PMK leader said the DMK government should prevail upon the Centre to withdraw the Bill instead of requesting it to reconsider the decision to introduce the Bill.
VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan said the Bill had many clauses which would go against the interests of the fishermen. If the Centre goes ahead with the Bill, then the VCK would stage an agitation in New Delhi.
In this connection, Thirumavalavan and his party functionaries met Chief Minister M Karunanidhi at his residence on Tuesday.