Sixty-four years after the Bodh Gaya Temple Act was framed in 1949, the Income Tax Department has issued notice to the temple management committee for the details of its income and expenses.
“The Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC) has received a notice from the I-T Department regarding its income,” said committee member secretary Norgay Dorjee.
The BTMC is the governing body of the world heritage Mahabodhi temple at Bodh Gaya.The notice has been issued for the first time in 64 years. “After discussing the matter with other members of the committee, we’ll reply to the notice, said the BTMC official.
In July, there were a series of blasts on the Bodh Gaya Temple premises which had put this world’s biggest Buddhist shrine on terrorist’s radar for the first time.
The National Investigation Team of India is investigating the blasts at Bodh Gaya and since then the State Government has handed over the security of the temple to Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel.
The Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee gets donations from all across the world but the major portion comes from the Buddhist countries like China,
Japan, Thailand, Sri lanka, Burma and others.
The temple committee sources said that the committee received `6.29 crore in donation for the financial year 2012-13. In the year 2010, the temple committee had also started online donation facility for the devotees.
Earlier, there have been confrontations among the members of the BTMC for gobbling up the foreign donations and funds meant for the development of the temple.
Reports suggested that one group of the management committee members was accusing others of financial irregularities.
Millions of Buddhists and European pilgrims and tourists visit Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya every year from September to February. Tibetan spiritual guru Dalai lama too used to visit the centuries-old Buddhist temple every year during the famous Kalchakra Puja.
The 1,500-year old Mahabodhi temple is a World Heritage site where Buddha had attained enlightenment around 2,550 years ago.
According to the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949 only a Hindu can be the head of the temple management committee but in July this year the Bihar Government through an amendment allowed even a non-Hindu to head the BTMC. The move, however, was opposed by the BJP.
The District Magistrate of Gaya is the ex-officio chairman of the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee.
While piloting the Bill in the State Assembly, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had said that the amendment was obligatory as India was declared a secular country in 1976, when the word “secular” was inserted into the Preamble by the 42nd amendment in the Constitution.
But, State BJP had contended that there was no need to bring this amendment, as the managements of the Hindu, Jain, Shia and Sunni trust boards were headed by persons of their respective communities.
The RJD had apposed the Bill saying that the Bodh Gaya temple management should be handed over only to the Buddhists.