Chief Minister K Palaniswami today took up with Centre the latest arrest of five Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan Navy, saying the continuing detentions were creating a "sense of panic and unrest among" the community in the state.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said while 13 fishermen had been apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy yesterday morning, five more had been detained late last evening along with their boat and taken to Thalaimannar.
He had yesterday itself taken up the matter of the arrest of the 13 persons in a letter to Modi.
"The continuing apprehensions of our fishermen in their traditional waters of Palk Bay is creating a sense of panic and unrest among the fisherman community of Tamil Nadu," he said in the letter today.
He said the fishermen's right of life and livelihood and right to carry on with fishing in the waters of the Palk Bay were "continuously being infringed upon by Sri Lanka."
He requested Modi's "urgent intervention" to secure the immediate release of a total of 53 fishermen, including the five arrested last evening, and 123 boats.
Pointing that the annul festival at the Katchatheevu St Anthony's Church, attended by fishermen of both India and Sri Lanka, was due within a week, he said it would be a fitting gesture if the detained fishers and boats were released ahead of it so that all could participate in the event happily.
"A permanent solution to the problem lies in retrieval of Katchatheevu and early sanction of Rs 1650 crore for the Comprehensive special package for diversification of livelihood to deep sea fishing," he said.
The ceding of the islet by India to Sri Lanka through an agreement in 1974 had been challenged "on extremely valid and legal grounds" in the Supreme Court by late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in her "personal capacity" in 2008, he said, adding the state government had subsequently impleaded itself in the case.
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