No meaningful effort taken by BJP regime to retrieve Katchatheevu island: CM Stalin

CHENNAI: Accusing the BJP-led union government of not making tangible efforts to retrieve Katchatheevu and only using it for electoral gains, Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday urged the union government to take concrete steps to find a lasting solution to the issue.

In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the CM drew the union government’s attention to the 'unprecedented' rise in arrests of fishermen from Tamil Nadu by Sri Lankan authorities for crossing maritime boundaries in recent weeks and sought a lasting solution to the long-standing issue. He pointed out that the Sri Lankan Navy had apprehended 25 fishermen along with two motorised country crafts and two unregistered fishing boats on July 1. “Despite the fact that the BJP-led government is in power for the third consecutive term, no tangible and meaningful effort has been taken to retrieve the island except for using the issue as an election time rhetoric! The need of the hour is to ease the problems faced by the fishermen of Tamil Nadu and to find a lasting solution to this festering problem. Therefore, I reiterate my request to you to take necessary concrete steps to find a lasting solution to this vexatious issue so that the traditional rights of the Tamil Nadu fishermen are upheld," he said.

The CM cited the June 26 letter of the Ministry of External Affairs which stated that the genesis of the Katchatheevu issue goes back to 1974 following an understanding between the then union government and the state government and said that the DMK-led state government had strongly opposed the Katchatheevu Agreement in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and the Parliament.

"The fact that the state government was not properly consulted in this regard is well known. It is the union government that ceded the island to Sri Lanka completely, jeopardising and depriving the rights and interests of Indian fishermen. My leader and then DMK President Kalaignar Karunanidhi had even filed a sworn-in affidavit before the Honourable Supreme Court of India and categorically stated that “When the entire exercise undertaken by Government is devoid of constitutionality, it cannot be said the sovereignty of Katchatheevu island is a settled matter"," the Chief Minister recalled.

The Katchatheevu issue became a talking point in the recent Lok Sabha election campaign in Tamil Nadu after the BJP blamed the DMK and Congress for the ceding of the islet to Sri Lanka.