The Tamil Nadu government today described Sri Lanka’s reported move to demolish and reconstruct a church in Katchatheevu islet as a “carefully calculated provocation” and urged the Centre to prevail on Colombo to involve Indian fishermen in the process.
 
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said the “unilateral” decision by Sri Lanka has created fears among Indian fishermen from the state that it could curtail their traditional and customary access to St Antonys church in Katchatheevu.
 
This reported move of the Lankan Government had “greatly” exercised the Indian fishermen in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, who had regularly visited and worshipped at this church for several centuries, she said.
 
The church in Katchatheevu, an islet ceded by India to Sri Lanka in the 1970s, holds considerable religious significance for fishermen in coastal districts who had traditionally undertaken pilgrimages for the annual festival of St Anthonys for several centuries, she said.
 
“It is part of their essential cultural and religious heritage,” she told the Prime Minister even as she recalled the state government impleading in a case filed by her in the Supreme Court for the retrieval of Katchatheevu as a permanent solution for the vexed fishermen issue.
 
-PTI
-Agencies