Turning the tables on the DMK, a combative Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Monday charged the Karunanidhi government in 1970 with abject failure to check the ceding of Katchatheevu, which remains the prime reason for the continuing woes of Tamil Nadu fishermen. 

The Chief Minister also asserted in the Assembly that she would win her case for retrieving the island, pending before the Supreme Court.

Sharply reacting to DMK member K Ponmudi who said that Jayalalithaa had not taken any steps to retrieve Katchatheevu to realise her vow made in 1991, she retorted, “The DMK members have no locus standi to ask this question because Katchatheevu was ceded to Lanka only when Karunanidhi was in power in 1974...yes...I did say that I would retrieve Katchatheevu...but I made that statement fully understanding the limits of the State government….I did not say that I would lead the army to get back that island...I said steps would be taken through the Central government to retrieve Katchatheevu.”

Jayalalithaa went on charging that Karunanidhi had kept quiet when the islet was ceded and even when she moved the Supreme Court in 2008 to retrieve Katchatheevu, the then DMK government did not implead itself in the case. Further, the DMK government, in its belated counter-affidavit in this case, toed the line of Centre that the ceding of this island was a closed chapter.

-NIE
-Agencies