BHUBANESWAR: Taking strong exception to the Centre’s draft heritage bylaws for the Jagannath Temple in Puri and Brahmeswar and Ananta Basudev temples in Bhubaneswar, the state government on Sunday pressed for their immediate withdrawal.
The authorities concerned of the three shrines wrote separate letters to the member secretary of the National Monuments Authority (NMA), Sanjukta Mudgal, requesting her to scrap the bylaws.
The state government fears that if the draft bylaws come into force, they would adversely affect the ongoing beautification and development works around the Jagannath and Lingaraj temples. Besides this, the government said the bylaws posed a threat to the rights of the servitors and would also hurt the sentiments of devotees.
Drafted by the NMA, the bylaws prohibit construction within a 100-metre radius of the Jagannath Temple and restrict construction, re-construction, repair and renovation activities to a radius of 300 metres.
The Jagannath Temple administration officials said the proposed bylaws would adversely affect the servitors, who have been living around the 12th century shrine for several years. “A large number of millennia-old habitations (sahis) exist around the temple. The families of the servitors (sevayats) stay there. They have been rendering their services to the temple since time immemorial. They are likely to be hit by this draft notification,” the temple’s chief administrator, Krishan Kumar, said in the letter. He added that the NMA must consult the servitors before taking any decision that might impinge upon the rights of the servitors. He said any impact on the sevayats would have a serious bearing on the daily rituals of the temple.
The temple administration also apprehends that the regulation might affect the ongoing development work under the ambitious Jagannath heritage corridor project. Recently, the government had acquired a patch of land for strengthening the safety and security around the temple. The project will provide facilities such as drinking water, toilets, cloakrooms and proper queue management system to the devotees. Any regulation that has the potential to restrict the development of facilities and amenities for the devotees, will hurt their sentiments, the letter said.
“To protect the interests of the deities, servitors and devotees, I request you to immediately withdraw the draft notification. You are invited for a detailed discussion and consultation with the members of the Jagannath Temple managing committee before any such fresh attempt is made,” Kumar said in the letter.
The draft heritage bylaws also invited the wrath of servitors and Puri residents. A number of servitors put up a demonstration outside the temple and urged the Union culture ministry to withdraw the regulation.
Leaders of the ruling dispensation, too, see a conspiracy to stop the development works around the Jagannath and the Lingaraj temples behind the bylaws. Many BJD leaders took to Twitter and launched a campaign under the hashtags of #Insult2Jagannath and #ConspiracyAgainstOdias, demanding immediate withdrawal of the draft bylaws.
This is an outrageous attempt on the part of the Centre to derail the extraordinary work being done under the CMs untiring efforts to improve the surroundings of Shri Mandir and Lingaraj Mandir. Clubbing our living Gods abode with mausoleums is blasphemous. The sentiments of the Odias will be deeply hurt, Puri MP Pinaki Mishra tweeted.
Earlier on Saturday, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, too, had requested Union culture minister Prahlad Singh Patel to consider the sentiments of devotees and take ample time before finalising any such regulation.