New Tamil Nadu CM writes to Indian PM to get fishermen’s boats back from Sri Lanka

Friday, 3 October 2014 05:42 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The new Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O. Panneerselvam today asked the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take “positive and concrete steps” to secure the immediate release of 20 fishermen and 75 boats still detained by the Sri Lankan authorities. Appreciating the efforts of the Indian Government under the leadership of Modi to secure the release of 76 fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for poaching inside the island’s territorial waters, the Chief Minister said unfortunately the 71 boats of the

fishermen have not been released. Sri Lanka released 76 Indian fishermen, 72 of them from Tamil Nadu, under Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s orders. However, Sri Lanka does not release the boats under a new policy adopted by the Government to deter the Indian fishermen from returning to poach in Sri Lankan waters. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said the boats are falling apart from disuse and the impending North East Monsoon mandates their immediate release to prevent further damage and deterioration. Echoing his predecessor J. Jayalalithaa’s sentiments, Panneerselvam said the traditional rights of fishermen from Tamil Nadu to fish in the waters of Palk Bay is continuously being infringed upon by the Sri Lankan Navy. The Tamil Nadu Government does not recognise the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) between the two countries or Sri Lanka’s sovereignty of the Katchatheevu Island, which was ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974 under a Supreme Court decision. “The Government of Tamil Nadu strongly reiterates the need to restore the traditional rights of our fishermen by annulling the ill-advised Indo-Sri Lankan agreements of 1974 and 1976 urgently,” Panneerselvam wrote. “I am confident that your Government will find suitable mechanisms to resolve this long pending fishing dispute between India and Sri Lanka by retrieving Katchatheevu and restoring the traditional fishing rights of our fishermen,” he said.