Way back in February 2021, the Shree Jagannath Temple
Management Committee had approved the much-desired Rs 800-crore
Heritage Corridor Project with the sole view to redeveloping the 12 th -
century shrine's surrounding areas to give it world-class beauty and
make visit of tourists and pilgrims memorable by providing all basic
amenities that people need during long queue-based entry into the
temple precincts. The project had come up even before the
beautification of the world-famous Kasi Vishwanath temple at
Varanasi was planned. The corridor would have smooth pathways and
minimum facilities that would keep pilgrims and devotees
comfortable while moving in queues. There would be little kiosk-like
outfits to have help centres, cloak rooms, water and refreshment units,
emergency healthcare counters, mini police outfits and, above all,
wash rooms. Without these amenities long queues would not be
possible for orderly visit inside the temple for a glimpse of the deities.
After Naveen Patnaik took over as Chief Minister, he being a devout
follower of the Lord was keen from day one to transform the shrine to
a stature that would accommodate the huge numbers of people
visiting the temple in the 21st century. So, quite in the earnest, the
Naveen administration worked hard to make things happen. And at
long last, the heritage corridor became a reality. Obviously frightened
by the immensely growing popularity of the Naveen Government,
political detractors set down to finding faults so as to defame it
anyway which struck their minds. Heritage activists joined the
opponents and the din of protest turned into kind of a cacophony as
there was neither any common factor for battle among them or
coherence of points of attack.
Most of the protestors swooped in on one single point: the
government was damaging the shrine structure by violating statutory
norms. Hardly would anyone know governments don’t operate
without legal sanctions. The Archaeological Survey of India situated
next door kept watching gleefully and kept quiet as if nothing illegal
was happening when the corridor and all the critically required
facilities were being raised.
The National Monuments Authority (NMA) was duly alerted and
appealed to for construction approval which had come in hand quite
in good time. Some essential deviations have occurred as usual that
can be regularised routinely. The protestors keep screaming that the
Government is doing everything so mindlessly as to pose danger to
the heritage shrine. Political opponents and heritage activists have
joined hands to make noise only. Not a single activist from any of the
communities has been clear in head to influence the people go extend
support. People by and large have expressed unconditional support to
the human-friendly project. Now that much progress has been made,
the surrounding of the temple looks like paradise regained.
The project includes development and beautification of the 75-metre
corridor around the temple's boundary walls (Meghanada Pacheri)
with information outfits, reception centres without affecting the
worship zones in various mutts linked to the big, majestic rituals of
the main temple. Dilapidated, unsafe mutt structures had to be pulled
down anyway. They had become dangerously fragile buildings to
crumble any moment and, more disturbingly, the mutt managers and
officials did not make a dime to maintain the mutts and carry out age-
old in-house rituals. Encroaching shopkeepers were paying no rent or
willing to dish out the rent amount as agreed upon in the 1930s which
can’t even buy a real good meal for lunch today. These greedy,
unethical traders paid scant heed to eviction notices by mutt officials;
and moreover, they moved courts of law to remain in place the way
rank trespassers behave. The landlords would have to evict them by
due procedure of law which is a terribly cumbersome process.
The project has been undertaken under the Augmentation of Basic
Amenities & Development of Heritage & Architecture (ABADHA)
scheme, which was approved by the State Cabinet in 2019. It
envisages to make Puri a world-class tourist and religious centre at an
expenditure of a whopping 3,200 crore rupees. The corridor was
targeted to be completed by the middle of 2022. Now that a futile
attempt has caused a little ripple, it might take a few more months.
Interestingly, all top project assessment groups including a special
parliamentary committee comprising all party and independent
members have come and declared that commendable things are
happening.
The project was approved days after the Centre withdrew its
notification for the draft heritage bylaws for the Jagannath Temple
which the detractors do not seem to know. At least 50 brainstorming
meetings have been held to zero in on the best plan that recommends
a 55-metre stretch of a 75-metre corridor from the temple boundary as
no-parking and no-vehicle movement zone. Battery-run vehicles are
only to ply on the stretch for devotees to commute to the shrine free
of cost. The temple reception centre would ensure at least 6,000
devotees move joyously in the open space in an orderly queue. A
luggage scanning system, a cloakroom for keeping belongings,
drinking water facilities and washrooms are some of the other features
that are coming up. A book shop too is being put up at the reception
centre to provide souvenirs and journals to devotees.
The ordinary citizens are not too clear about how the detractors are
confusing the masses. The High Court of Orissa too has ruled that
such people-friendly projects cannot be stopped. So much of the State
efforts to make visitors’ life easy and amusing cannot go waste.
Lastly, the ASI next door, snoring all this while, has suddenly,
without any proof or evidence or scientific basis, woken up screaming
that the Government contractors may have damaged the temple
structure badly. The agency has no enforcement powers. The National
Monuments Authority, which has all powers, has duly approved the
plan. The Puri District Magistrate has severally flaunted the document
which looks invisible only to the opponents. The other statutory
authorities are happy; the lawmakers are happy; the judges of the
High Court are also happy. It’s only the political opponents that are
upset along with a few heritage activists who are crazy to prove their
stand is right and their charges are fact-based. But to prove that the
construction work has affected the temple structure is nearly
impossible. That the temple has been shaken up or is showing cracks
is just a make-believe allegation.