Rajesh Kumar Behera in Kendrapada, Orissa
The district unit of a saffron outfit ‘ Vishwa Hindu Parisada’ (VHP), on Tuesday , organized a press conference at Budhi bulasuni temple premises and demanded before the district administration to restore a religious place and a century old sun clock ,situated at Old Bus stand from encroachers who were illegally converted the place of worship and the monumental land by constructing urinals and keeping sand ,chips for construction.
Addressing to media, Manmatha Nath Sahoo .the District Secretary of VHP stated that some persons from a particular community allegedly encroached the religious place by erecting latrine near the Hindu religious place and also they stored bricks ,chips and sand for construction purpose .
According to Sahoo, as per the history ,the religious place, which is located near old bus stand , was the bijesthali of Lord Baladev before the lord was taken to Ichhapur . But the Baladevjew temple was demolished 300 years back by a Mogul ruler and a mosque was erected by the said Mogul ruler . Even , in past years some remnants of Hindu temple were also unearthed from the said place.
Even sahoo informed that the place was also the bijesthali of Lord Garveshwar Mahadev alias Gariba mahadev ,which had a documentary evidence in the khatiyan of 1911. Some years back, the Hindus had come to worship the Gariba mahadev. Later, in 1980 settlement ,the said religious place was converted into government land .
But now ,a particular community members allegedly by encroaching the said Hindu religious place have stored brick ,chips ,sand and also want to erect permanent structure which would create communal frenzy by losing brotherhood among the two religious community .
Notably, in 1984 , the district administration put barbed wire around the said religious place and sun clock after two communities clashed with each other claiming the lands as their properties. But recently some persons belonging to a particular community illegally damaged the barbed wire and built some shops and latrines on this land alleged VHP activists .
“So, on Tuesday , we the VHP activists and the District Hindu Samaj demanded before the district administration to evict all the encroachers from the place and also from the monumental sun clock. Else ,the VHP will demonstrate in front of the collectors office if the authority will not evict all the encroachers in the coming future “ , said Manmanth Nath Sahoo the general secretary of district unit of VHP.
According to Baidyanath Chatarjee , an intellect ,the sun clock is the perfect replica of the old Kendrapada ornate. Unfortunately, nothing much remains of it today. Recently some persons illegally constructed shops around the sun clock. The vagaries of time, coupled with a callous administration has turned the monument into a heap of garbage. The sun clock is of much archaeological importance and it needs as much preservation by the district administration..
When contacted the Sub collector of Kendrapada ,Ranjan Kumar Dash, stated that he has received a petition from the VHP activists in this regard on Tuesday The sub collector , Ranjan Kumar Dash , the IIC of Kendrapada town police station, Ramesh Sethy, and several senior officials visited the disputed land and started the demarcation work in the place by directing the local municipality and tehsil staff .
The district administration will take necessary steps to evict all the encroachers very shortly and the authority will protect the century old sun dial at Kendrapada, added Ranjan Kumar Dash , the sub collector .
Keeping in mind that Kendrapada is a much communal sensitive district , security has been beefed up at the sun clock and its nearby areas to prevent any law and order situation
