Jayalalithaa opposes installing buoys on IMBL with Sri Lanka

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa Tuesday termed as "inappropriate" the Centre's proposal to conduct feasibility study on installing buoys on International Maritime Boundary Line as the state government has not accepted IMBL with Sri Lanka as a settled issue.

The proposal by Department of Boarder Management and Ministry of Home Affairs came up in the Inter-ministerial meeting on India-Sri Lankan Fishermen's issues, she said, adding, her government has filed a case in the Supreme Court "challenging the constitutionality" of ceding Katchatheevu islet to Sri Lanka, she said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"The matter is still pending in the Supreme Court and will have a bearing on the location of the IMBL. Tamil Nadu government has not accepted the IMBL as a settled issue. Given that the issue is sub judice, it would neither be appropriate nor feasible to install buoys along the IMBL at this point of time", she said.

Jayalalithaa said that in her memorandum submitted to Modi during her meeting with him last month in New Delhi she had requested him to "retrieve" India's sovereignty over Katchatheevu, which was "unconstitutionally" and "illegally" ceded to Sri Lanka under Indo-Sri Lankan agreements in 1974 and 1976.