Sri Lanka’s Minister hopes India will not press for Katchatheevu

“Sri Lanka strongly hopes that India will not pressurise it by asking for Katchatheevu,” said Maheswaran after participating in the special mass held at the annual St Antony’s church festival in Katchatheevu near here on Sunday. 

The Sri Lankan Minister also said that talks to resolve the contentious fishermen’s issues between the two countries were “continuously on.” 

Regretting that Indian fishermen continued to use trawlers to fish in the sea, the minister said that the livelihood of Sri Lankan fishermen was affected largely due to such activity. Maheswaran also assured that a new church would be constructed in Katchatheevu. She also thanked the Indian government for providing proper education and other facilities to the displaced Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India. 

“We are also planning to rehabilitate war-affected people in a proper manner in the coming Sinhalese new year and I appeal to the displaced people in India to return to Sri Lanka,” the minister said. 

Earlier, a special mass was conducted by Bishop and Vicar General of Jaffna, Justin Gnanapragasam and was attended by Consul General of India in Jaffna A. Natarajan and other high ranking Sri Lankan officials. Over 3,000 devotees took part in the annual festival, which commenced on February 20.