Team Herald
CANACONA: Devotees from Goa and Karnataka were left disheartened after being denied permission to celebrate of feast at Our Lady of Brotas Church on Anjediva Island for the 15th consecutive year.
The devotees have questioned the whole exercise of the Minister of State for Defence and North Goa MP Shripad Naik asking them to submit 15 names to visit the island on Sunday.
Natividade D’Sa at the behest of the suggestion from Naik’s office in Panjim had hurriedly submitted names of 15 devotees to visit Our Lady of Brotas Church on the island for celebrating the feast, which has been kept in abeyance since 2004 due to security reasons.
This is the 15th consecutive year that the Our Lady of Brotas Church, which was refurbished by Archaeological Survey of India in 2018 by spending over Rs 45 lakh, has gone without lighting a single candle or holding a prayer service following a ban on civilians in the vicinity of the island on security grounds post 2004, informed a Binaga local.
When Minister of State for Defence Shripad Naik asked Natividade D’Sa, a septuagenarian from Canacona, who is spearheading the movement for the entry of devotees on the island, to submit a list of 15 devotees willing to visit the church on the feast day on February 2; over five lakh devotees from Goa and north Karnataka were delighted with the news that this year after 15 years, they will be allowed to celebrate the feast.
After keeping the faithful guessing on the outcome of the letter from D’Sa, the Minister of State for Defence informed the local MLA and Deputy Speaker Isidore Fernandes that at the last minute it was decided not to allow 15 devotees to visit the island on feast day.
Natividade D’Sa is flabbergasted since the Deputy Speaker called Shripad Naik on Friday only to be informed that the request of 15 individuals including noted historian Prajal Sakhardande to visit the island on Sunday was turned down.
While commuting by bus from Canacona to Panjim to submit the list to the Minister, D’Sa said he was delighted but was sad after being informed that their request was turned down this year too. However, he vowed to continue his fight. “I fail to understand the logic behind the decision to deny entry to 15 law abiding citizens of India, half of which are senior citizens, who don’t even have a single case registered against them at any police station”, D’Sa wondered.
Meanwhile the residest of mainland Binaga celebrated the feast of Our Lady of Brotas at the church of St Anne’s at Binaga with usual pomp and gaiety and prayed for early resumption of customary celebration of the feasts on the Anjediva Island.
