Fishermen participate in Katchatheevu festival

Seventy-six people including fishermen, devotees and priests from various churches in Rameswaram and other parts sailed to Katchatheevu to participate in the two-day annual festival at St. Antony’s Church.

After being subjected to screening by the Central and State agencies, the Ramanathapuram District Revenue Officer Kamatchi Ganesan and Revenue Divisional Officer Sheik Mansoor and other officials flagged off the pilgrims, who set off in three mechanised boats and a country boat.

The devotees were expected to return to the shore here on March 12 around noon.

According to reports from Katchatheevu participants, they reached the island in about two and a half hours in the afternoon.

In the evening, the holy flag was hoisted and as part of the celebrations, the car festival would be held late in the evening and a special prayer would be conducted on Saturday early morning, following which they would return, they said and added that about 50 devotees including fishermen and others from Sri Lanka too had arrived here to witness the festival.

According to fishermen leader Jesu Raja, Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda had been instrumental in bringing about a permanent solution to the fishermen issue. Utilising the opportunity, the fishermen from India and their counterparts from Sri Lanka had an informal exchange of information.

While the Sri Lankan fishermen appealed not to use banned fishnets as it affected the natural resoures, the Indian side fishermen, while agreeing to it, urged them to allow fishing in Katchatheevu, as in the past. Prior to 1974, the fishermen from Tamil Nadu used the Palk Bay for fishing and after it was handed over by the Indian government to Sri Lanka, the issue had snowballed to such an extent that their livelihood had become a big question. They also narrated their woes about the auctioning of their boats by the Sri Lankan authorities.