‘Tamil Nadu should take constructive approach’: Governor RN Ravi on Katchatheevu dispute

Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi on Sunday said that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government in the state should take a “constructive approach” in relation to the Katchatheevu dispute with Sri Lanka instead of “finding fault” with the Centre.

Following a visit to Rameswaram where he met fisherfolk, Ravi said that the state and the Union government should work together to find an “enduring solution” to the dispute.

Katchatheevu is a small uninhabited island in the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka. Both India and Sri Lanka have laid claim over the island since at least 1921.

In 1974, the two countries signed an agreement demarcating their maritime boundary. The deal said that the boundary runs one mile off Katchatheevu’s western coast, effectively placing the island in Sri Lankan territorial waters.

However, the dispute has continued to find traction in the politics of Tamil Nadu, especially because it is intertwined with the attacks on and detention of fisherfolk from the state by the Sri Lankan Navy.

On Sunday, Ravi said that the fisherfolk in Rameswaram were “victims of an iniquitous agreement of 1974 which was extremely insensitive” to their livelihoods.

“The then governments in Delhi and Chennai committed a grave sin by depriving our fishermen of their traditional fishing rights in the sea around Katchatheevu island,”...

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