Getting back Katchatheevu only way to end sufferings of fishermen: Stalin to Modi

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.

Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly passed a resolution on 21.08.1974 strongly opposing the decision of union government on the issue of Katchatheevu.

The Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly had passed resolutions on 03.10.1991, 03.05.2013 and 05.12.2014 reiterating the consistent demand of retrieving the Katchatheevu Island to protect the traditional fishing rights of the state's fishermen.

The CM said: "The frequent apprehensions of our fishermen and seizure of their boats in large numbers have put the lives of coastal community in a state of permanent anxiety and distress. The livelihood of the fishermen has also become uncertain due to the arrests and seizures. I have personally brought this issue to your notice for immediate intervention, during our first meeting on 17.06.2021 after my assumption of office as Chief Minister and also reiterated our earlier requests for a permanent solution of this issue in our subsequent meetings as well. Since 2021, I have also written many letters to the Minister for External Affairs and yourself on the arrests and attacks on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy."

In the year 2024, 530 Indian fishermen have been arrested and in the first three months of the year 2025, 147 fishermen were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy. "Our fishermen are being sentenced to maximum imprisonment and are being levied hefty fines. Besides this, their boats are confiscated and put to auction. All these aggressive measures of Sri Lanka have pushed our fishermen to the brink of extreme poverty and reaffirms our repeated demand for retrieval of Katchatheevu, which is the only way to find a permanent solution to this problem."

In this regard, the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly unanimously passed a resolution on 02.04.2025, urging the union government to immediately review the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement and take all steps to retrieve Katchatheevu island and also to urge the Prime Minister to hold talks with the Sri Lankan government to get "all our imprisoned fishermen released along with their boats on a goodwill basis," during his upcoming official visit to Sri Lanka.

Stalin said: "I request your good office to take immediate steps to review the Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement at the earliest so that the Katchatheevu Island is retrieved and the traditional fishing rights of our fishermen are permanently protected."