PANAJI
Independent Cortalim MLA Anton Vas on Friday raised the issue of the controversy related to the Sancoale church during 'zero hour' in the State Legislative Assembly and demanded that stringent action be taken against an 'outsider' who was fomenting communal tension in the area.
Vas noted that people of all communities have co-existed peacefully and with communal amity for centuries in Goa and there was no room for anyone to sow a communal divide.
Without taking any names, Vas said, an 'outsider' was time and again entering the village and attempting to create communal tension and strict action must be taken against him.
Vas said, it is a protected monument in the custody of the ASI and so there was no question of interfering with the site even as he demanded immediate action against the 'outsider' for fomenting communal tension in the village.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant however, did not reply to Vas' request but only rose to his feet to say he has "noted" what the Cortalim MLA has said.
It may be recalled that some Hindu outfits are claiming that the Church of Our Lady of Health, of which only the frontispiece exists after the church got destroyed in a fire in the nineteenth century, was built in the place where a temple exists.
The edifice is a protected monument and is in the custody of the Archaeological Survey of India but in December 2020, a group of people for the first time descended at the site to demand that a Hindu place of worship be established there.
The matter died down in the melee of the pandemic but in August last year, 10 people trespassed into the property and installed a 'Vijay Durga' idol and conducted a pooja in the wee hours of the night.
However police intervened and took the idol in their custody. An FIR was also lodged in relation to the incident and several known and unknown persons were named, including one resident of Sancoale.
