CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate steps for retrieving the Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka to ensure permanent protection of the traditional fishing rights of the state's fishermen in the Palk Bay area.
Writing to Modi, Stalin cited the assembly resolution passed on April 2, 2025 seeking retrieval of Katchatheevu island from Sri Lanka, and underscored that the origin of the problem was the Indo-Sri Lankan treaty (Katchatheevu Agreement) of the year 1974. The government of Tamil Nadu has been steadfast in opposing the Katchatheevu agreement right from the beginning. The Members of Parliament from Tamil Nadu had strongly opposed the ceding of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in Parliament in 1974.
After the signing of the Katchatheevu agreement by the union government on 28.06.1974 without the consent of the state government, the then Chief Minister M Karunanidhi immediately convened an all-party meeting at the Secretariat on the very next day on 29.06.1974 and passed a resolution condemning it and wrote a letter to the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on the same day.
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