In a unique way of protest, more than 2,500 people, including women and children, chanted nightlong prayers inside the Shiridi Sai Temple here at Khan Nagar on Tuesday forcing the district administration to postpone its temple demolition drive on Wednesday.
Members from each family of the locality gathered at the temple premises on Tuesday evening when news spread that their newly-built temple would come under the bulldozers on Wednesday morning. In an impromptu meeting, the local heads decided that they would fight tooth and nail to save the shrine built at a cost of Rs 2 crore.
“As each family of the locality had contributed voluntarily to construct the temple, it is now the responsibility of each family to save the temple,” said a local leader, claiming that around 2,500 people spent the entire night inside the temple singing Bhajans and holding Kirtans.
While the people continued to stay put in the temple on Wednesday morning and vowed not to move an inch even as bulldozers run over them, the district administration anticipating a major law and order situation held back its demolition drive for the day after getting intelligence inputs. It was for the second consecutive day that the demolition drive was stalled.
Equipped with the High Court order, the administration had launched the illegally-built temple demolition drive in the city since May 1. By now, as many as 22 temples and other places of religious importance have been razed to the ground as they had come up illegally on Government lands.
The administration had identified at least 207 illegal structures to be pulled down, out of which 57 are located in the eastern part of the city under the Chauliaganj, Madhupatna, Badambadi and Malgodown police stations.
While the RDC (Central) is supervising the demolition drive, the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is providing the manpower and machines for the purpose. Sources said the CMC by now has spent more than Rs 30 lakh towards the fuel expenses of the bulldozers and vibrators used for demolition of the temples.
Sources further informed that the civic body has now expressed its inability to remove the debris that has accumulated after the demolition of the temples. Although the RDC had directed the civic body to start lifting the debris and dump them in low-lying places from May 16, the operation has not begun yet.