Uncertainty looms large over this year’s car festival at the 400-year-old lord Baladevjew temple following the Temple Endowment Authority found it hard to collect money for the fest. The Temple Endowment Committee recently wrote a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik urging him to provide Rs 5 lakh per annum to hold the yatra.
According to Gagan Patri, one of the members of committee, every year about Rs 9 lakh is spent for organising the Car festival at the Tulasi Kshetra, the abode of lord Baladevjew. Meanwhile, fund crunch has become an impediment for the temple authority for constructing the Brahma Taladhwaj chariot.
According executive officer of the Temple Endowment Committee Nityananda Suar, this year the committee has collected nearly Rs 4.50 lakh from various heads. But still the temple authority needs another Rs 5 lakh for organising the 9-day festivity with much pump and religious fervour.
According to the committee members, when Bed Prakash Agrawal was the Finance Minister in the late Biju Patnaik Cabinet in 1990, he disbursed Rs 1 lakh per annum from the law department for the Car festival. But after the tenure of Biju Patnaik, the fund was stopped.
The devotees, sevayats and the committee members alleged that while the State Government has been donating handsomely every year for the famous Car festival at Shreekhetra in Puri, then why it has been showing a step-motherly attitude at Tulashikshetra.
Here in Tulashikhetra, lord Baladevjew, Subahadra and lord Jagannath ride in a single chariot called the Brahma Taladhwaja, said to be the world's tallest.
The number of wheels used in the chariot is 14 where as the chariot is built on 1,013 wood logs. The height of the chariot is 65 feet from the bottom.
The Endowment committee wrote to the Chief Minister that a sum of Rs 30 lakh has been sanctioned under the 13th Finance Commission for the refurbishment and renovation work of the Baladevjerw temple, including its front temple, mid temple, Jaga Mohan, Gundicha temple, Bedha walls, Makarchourasi house, Snana Mandap and Jhulan Mandap. The State Archeology Department (SAD) has been carrying out the renovation work in the temple. In order to complete the renovation of the temple and Gundicha Temple, it needs another Rs 3 lakh.
The Endowment authority also urged the CM to direct the district administration to take step for evicting and bringing back nearly 250 acres of temple land.