The Cuttack district administration on Thursday demolished three more illegally-constructed religious institutions in the city, taking the total number of demolition of such structures to seven. At least 200 more religious institutions, including temples, would be grounded as the administration has launched the drive following the orders of the Odisha High Court.
A 20-year-old and 40-feet-high temple built on Government land was partially demolished on Thursday before completely pulling down two ashrams. The demolition act of the Shyama Shyam temple built at a cost of over Rs 2 crore at the Harihar Ghat near the Kathajodi river could not be completed due to scorching heat. Government officials said the temple would be completely razed on Friday.
But before demolishing the famous temple, the authorities had grounded two other religious structures on the day. It took only 15 minutes each to demolish the Bharat Mata Pujan Samiti building and the Asharamram Bapu Ashram located at Markat Nagar.
However, it took more than three hours to partially demolish the Shyama Shyam temple, which had come up on an area of 5000 square feet. Although the temple had its existence since early 1990s, the majestic structure had been inaugurated in 2002 in the presence of several Ministers and Government officials.
Despite many priests and trustees having decided not to protest the demolition drive, some devotees, however, could not control their emotions when they saw the demolition of a beautiful structure which had been their spiritual inspiration for several years. Many aged heartbroken devotees, including women, wailed inconsolably as the bulldozers went on inflicting the damages to the structure.
The district administration is demolishing the temples following the High Court’s orders. RDC (Central) Arabinda Padhee is supervising the drive. The district authorities have identified as many as 207 illegal religious institutions.
Soon after the demolition of the religious structures on the day, Padhee, who is also the Chief Administrator of the Shree Jagannath Temple of Puri went round the places and instructed Government officials to ensure that no further re-encroachment of the evicted places takes place.