The emotive issue of Katchatheevu, a tiny island ceded to Sri Lanka by the Indian government in 1974 has always been a bone of contention between late Chief Ministers M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa and the latter even vowed to retrieve the islet as a part of addressing the fishermen's issues. The uninhabited island was ceded in 1974 when the then Prime MInister Indira Gandhi accepted Katchatheevu as Sri Lankan area under the Indo-Sri Lankan Maritime agreement with her counterpart Srimavo Bandaranaike, aimed at resolving the maritime boundaries in the Palk Strait. Further, another agreement signed in 1976 restricted the fishermen of both the countries from fishing in the other's exclusive economic zones. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday training his guns against the Congress and its ally DMK, in power at the Centre and the state, respectively then, the issue has now assumed centre stage in the poll season, just days ahead of the April 19 general election in Tamil Nadu. T Read The Rest at :