THOOTHUKUDI: The week-long strike by labourers at Thoothukudi fishing harbour closes on an end as they agreed to venture into the sea from Monday after Collector Dr K Senthil Raj assured to form a committee under the Joint Director of Fisheries to decide on the issues between the fishing vessel owners and labourers. The committee will submit a report within a month, and the decisions regarding the deduction of wages for repaying 'vattam' will be taken accordingly.
The fisher labourers had been on an indefinite strike since Monday, condemning the vessel owners' arbitrary decision to deduct 10% of the labourers' daily wages to repay their debt on account of procuring 'vattam' to operate the vessels.
Several rounds of talks between the owners and the labourers failed as both of them relentlessly remained adamant about their demands. The fisheries department officials' instruction on the notice board calling fishermen to venture into the sea, created a flutter among the labourers, who staged a stir in front of the fishing harbour late on Friday. A heavy police bandobast was deployed as labourers stopped the vehicles ferrying ice bars required for the vessels.
Meanwhile, during a consultative meeting held in the presence of Sub-Collector Gaurav Kumar, SP L Balaji Saravanan, DSP Sathiyaraj, Joint Director of Fisheries Xavier and the fishermen at the collectorate, Collector Dr K Senthil Raj promised to form a committee -- comprising of officials from police, revenue, fisheries and the sangam members headed by the Joint Director of Fisheries-- to review the demands of both labourers and the owners. The report will be submitted within a month. Based on the report, the decision regarding the deductions in the wages will be arrived at, the collector said. The fisher labourers also agreed to venture into the sea from Monday.