Rashmi Ranjan

At  a time when the Srimandir Parikrama Project is mired in controversy, five servitors of the Lord Jagannath Temple have knocked on the door of the Orissa High Court seeking its direction to the ASI and State government to complete the project within the stipulated time. 

The five servitors who have filed a writ petition are Binayak Das Mohapatra, Batakrushna Mudra, Harekrushna Khuntia, Raghunath Gochhikar and Kushnachandra Khuntia. 

When contacted, senior servitor Binayak Das Mohapatra said they have prayed the High Court to direct the ASI and State government to complete the project within the fixed time as the car festival is round the corner and rainy season is also fast approaching. 

“We have given up our lands for the project. And the project construction work was also going on smoothly. The recent politicization of the project has thrown a spanner,” Das Mohapatra said. 

Worth mentioning here that, Puri Shankaracharya Swami Nischalananda Saraswati had on Sunday expressed his dissatisfaction over the ongoing Heritage Corridor project. 

Launching an attack on the State government, the sheer had said it is typical of the State government to convert ‘tapobhumi’ into ‘bhogbhumi’. “The State government should have commenced the project work only after consulting with architects, engineers and experts,” he had said. 

At the same time, Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey being carried out around the Jagannath Temple in a clandestine manner and that too in the deep of the night on Saturday had raised many eyebrows.

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