Key Points
The annual feast for the devout at St Antonys church on the Sri Lankan island of Katchatheevu, located in the choppy waters of Palk Strait, was revived in March 2010 after nearly three decades.i)..
Just over a month later, however, a political controversy is raging in India over the small island, used for drying fishing nets and for fishermen to rest, pray and gossip, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that the Congress callously gave away Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in the 1970s..
The dispute was formally raised by (Sri Lankan) Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake on his official visit to India in December 1968 who discussed it with the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and formally stated his position that there was no question as such of sovereignty over Kachchativu (Katchatheevu) inasmuch it was part of Sri Lankas territory..
Following talks held between June 26 and 28, 1974, the prime ministers of India and Sri Lanka, Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike, signed an agreement to demarcate the boundary between the two countries in the waters from Palk Strait to Adams Bridge. ..
Article 4 of the Agreement stipulated that each State shall have sovereignty and exclusive jurisdiction and control over the waters, the Islands, the Continental Shelf and the sub soil on its side of the Maritime boundary in the Palk Strait and Palk Bay and Katchatheevu Island was determined as falling within Sri Lankan waters..
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