While on Tuesday the demolition drive of the Bada Akhada Mutt in Puri, which has been declared unsafe, couldn’t succeed due to protests, a meeting between the district administration and the Puri Surakhaya Munch (PSM) held on Wednesday also virtually failed.
A 15-member PSM team, led by local BJP MLA Jayant Kumar Sarangi, met Collector Balawant Singh to discuss eviction of houses, lodgings
and mutts within a 75-meter radius of the Jagannath Temple. However, the meeting failed to arrive at a consensus as the administration wanted to continue eviction of structures coming within the security zone of the temple.
In this situation, the PSM decided to meet Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in next three to four days. “We knew the Collector is not the competent authority to alter the decisions of the State Cabinet. Still, we met the Collector on courtesy to let him inform the Government about our grievance,” said PSM convener Damodar Padhani to The Pioneer.
Citing the intention to evict structures as malafide, Padhani informed that the BP Das Commission has never mentioned 75 meters anywhere in its report.
Notably the PSM is a body of lawyers, servitors, abbots and intelligentsia which has been constituted to protest the demolition drive.
Collector Singh said, “I have made it clear that demolition of commercial and unsafe structures within the temple’s security zone will go on as it is.”
Some good suggestions came in from the PSM, besides complaints on disbursal of compensation money to land owners during eviction for the last Nabakalebar Yatra, he said.
Meanwhile, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has joined the protest spree. In a meeting of Mahants and saints of mutts, the VHP questioned why the BP Das Commission report has not been made public.Sources said that around 500 Naga Sadhus from different parts of the country have left for Puri to join the protest against demolition of mutts.