Pointing out that 3,656 Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for the last 10 years since the BJP-led government assumed power in 2014, Chief Minister M K Stalin urged Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to sign a fresh agreement with Sri Lanka to retrieve Katchatheevu, an islet ceded to the Island Nation through a1974 pact, to find a permanent solution to this vexatious issue and restore the traditional fishing rights of fishermen in the Palk Bay.
Stalin sought the personal intervention of the Prime Minister on the issue to
prevent the continuing arrests of TN fishermen by the Lankan authorities on charges of fishing in their territorial waters by crossing the International Maritime Bounday Line (IMBL).
He urged Modi to take steps to ink a new agreement with Sri Lanka allowing Tamil Nadu fishermen to fish near Katchatheevu island”, he said.
“As the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu I am again and again requesting you to take steps in this regard”, Stalin said.