Vijayawada: Tension prevailed when priests and parishioners resisted a municipal corporation’s attempt to demolish a part of a 100-year-old Catholic church in Vijayawada town in Andhra Pradesh.
The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation authorities wanted to demolish a portion of St. Peter’s Cathedral at Tarapet on July 31 night to widen a road.
Hundreds of Catholics, supported by opposition parties, staged a protest at the church on August morning even as corporation staff returned to the site to complete the demolition process. They wondered why the corporation failed to serve a notice on church authorities before embarking on pulling down the structure, The Times of India reported.
Sources said VMC officials and workers came with earth-movers and demolished a wall and a complex adjacent to the church. The Catholic fraternity opposed the move arguing that the alignment of the road should have been changed as the religious structure, which was built some time in the middle of the 19th Century, has a historical significance.
“Taking the shrine’s history and prominence into consideration, VMC officials should leave the structure untouched. They carried out the demolition without informing the church authorities or serving a notice,” said Samuel, a member of the church.
Locals, led by YSRCP corporators Shaik Asif and Bolla Vijay Kumar, demanded an explanation from the VMC for taking up the exercise without informing the church authorities.
The church management alleged that the officials have insulted Catholics by damaging some idols at the Cathedral during the demolition work.
The police later took a few agitators into custody and released them later. A police picket has been arranged at the place.