Empowering Citizens in North-Valikamam North in Jaffna

NAFSO is engage in empowering people in the ground, specifically the war affected communities in selected divisional secretariat areas in Northern, Eastern, North Western Provinces.
War affected communities are one of the most vulnerable groups as some of them are still living in displaced camps or some other people's lands even after 51/2 years of war ended.

NAFSO team conducted another education and focus group meeting last 19th January in Valikamam north in Thellipillai, Jaffna. The 26 participants from 5 selected villages met and selected their representatives to the

citizen committee as Valikamam north citizen committee and elected 2 persons for represent the People's Gallery at the Thellipilai Pradesheeya Saba. At the same time, people were able to elect another person for the advisory council of the same Pradesheeya Saba which is a great achievement of the Citizen Committee formation process of NAFSO.

People Say NO to Corrupted Politicians to Maithree Regime

It is really painful to see the corrupted politicians are either leave the country secretly or join the Maithree Government which promised for a change and change for a good governance.

It is we who faced lot of harassment, brutal attacks while engage in the campaign for reform agenda during the elections. Eppawla is one place we were attacked by Mahinda Rajapakse's supporters or the goons. Also Hambantota, where Mahinda Rajapakse's place of political origin we were brutally attacked and 4 of our colleagues were hospitalized due to the attacks.
The mayor of Hambantota municipality[I dont write this fellows name purposely]  was the main accused of the attack who was arrested later and remanded for 3 days during the election.

After the election, the same person has come forward to support Maithreepala Sirisena, the present president. However, people in the area are totally reject his joining the ruling party and campaigned against the acceptance of his support to Maithripala.

EU fish import ban from Lanka goes into effect Wedaarachchi hopeful new govt’s appeal will get the country a breather

 

The issue of EU ban of export fish to EU territories are on effect from the 15th of January 2015. 

Although former fisheries minister, Rajitha Senarathne boasted that the MOF can revert the decision of EU ban of fishing import from Sri Lanka that was not success at all.

Now, the fishing industry mainly the multiday, deep sea fishery is in danger.

No one took serious look in to the issue and now fishers are the victims.

Maheesha Mudugamuwa of the Island news paper has written an interesting article with interviewing newly appointed Fisheries Minister[Non Cabinet Minister] Dilip Wedaarachchi on the issue.

Minister has simply put the blame on previous government and with high hopes about the new President and the Prime Minister could solve the issue.

Herman

 http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=117735

January 16, 2015, 7:42 am 

by Maheesha Mudugamuwa

After issuing a red card against Sri Lankan seafood exports in October last year, due to the country’s failure to demonstrate that it sufficiently addressed Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, the European Union (EU) began its ban yesterday (15).

The newly appointed State Minister of Fisheries Dilip Wedaarachchi yesterday told The Island that he was confident the EU would remove the ban for six months as per the request made by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Maithripala Sirisena.

The EU in 2012 also issued a Yellow Card warning to Sri Lanka following complaints of 11 Sri Lankan vessels intruding into international waters in 2011for fishing and fishermen violating the international maritime boundary laws.

Minister Wedaarachchi who is to assume duties at the Ministry today (16) said that the EU’s decision to ban Sri Lankan fish exports was due to the distrust they had of the former government.

The government had already sent a letter to EU seeking removal of its fishing ban for six months, while promising to comply with required rules and regulations during that time period, he noted.

Minister Wedaarachchi said however that the EU had not yet responded to the request.

Responding to a query, he said that he would have to find what the Ministry’s next step would be to cope with the ban after he assumed duties today.

The European Commission said last year that Sri Lanka had failed to make ‘credible progress’ toward fighting illegal fishing, including creating a scheme to punish high-seas violators.

According to the European Commission, Sri Lanka is one of the biggest exporters to the EU of high value products such as swordfish and tuna. EU imports in 2013 amounted to 7,400 MT of fish worth USD 94 million from the country.

The Indu-SL Fisheries issues are becoming to a new level with the regime change!

New Delhi, Jan. 18 (ANI): The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Sunday stated that a meeting of the fisherman associations of India and Sri Lanka has been proposed in order to work out a long term solution with regards to this issue, adding that the matter needs to be dealt with in a humane manner.

"It is proposed to have a meeting of the fishermen's associations of the two countries at an early date to discuss how to address longer term goal in this regard. Both India and Sri Lanka feel that a longer term solution needs to be worked out taking into consideration all aspects of the matter," MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin told the media.

"In the interim, there is an understanding that this matter needs to be dealt with in a humane manner taking into consideration the humanitarian aspects of the livelihoods of those involved. On this issue of fishermen, the Sri Lankan Minister of External Affairs (EAM) Mangala Samaraweera has indicated that efforts are underway on matters relating to the release of boats," he added.

Akbaruddin also stated that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was invited to visit Sri Lanka by her counterpart.

"The Sri Lankan Minister for External Affairs has invited EAM to visit Sri Lanka. She has agreed to this and dates will be worked out soon," he said.

"The next visit will also see the holding of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission. This Joint Commission was last held in January 2012 in New Delhi," he added.

Stating that Sri Lanka has assured India of its constitutional reform initiatives, Akbaruddin said that the meeting between Swaraj and Samaraweera has paved the way for newly elected President Maithiripala Sirisena's visit to New Delhi.

"The Sri Lanka Minister of External Affairs also briefed the EAM on the constitutional reform efforts initiative by the new Sri Lankan Government. On our part, EAM has conveyed India's interests in working closely and extensively with the new Sri Lankan Government," he said.

"India and Sri Lanka have agreed to re-engage on the issue of repatriation of refugees currently in India back to Sri Lanka. A meeting on this between the concerned officials is targeted to be held before the end of this month. The meeting has paved the way for the further visit of Sri Lankan President to India at an early day," he added.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka went to polls, with 19 candidates contesting the elections. Maithiripala Sirisena was voted the new President, beating the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa after securing 51.28 percent of the votes cast.

President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had both extended their congratulations to President Sirisena on his poll victory. (ANI)