BMC 'pulls down' portion of Kedar Gouri temple’s boundary wall, ASI lodges police complaint 

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) on Sunday came face-to-face over the former pulling down a portion of the boundary wall of the 9th-century Kedar Gouri temple. 

As per the allegations of the security guard, some people arrived today morning and demolished a portion of the boundary wall. 

When confronted by the security guard, they told him that they were doing as per the direction of the corporator as a JCB machine would enter the compound to dredge a drain. When the security guard asked them to show the ASI’s permission letter, they failed to do so. 

When contacted assistant conservator of ASI Sushant Gochhayat for his reaction in this regard, he said, “I had told the corporator over his mobile phone that he should first inform the ASI regarding the nature of work and wait till the ASI allows him to go ahead with the work. When we asked them to stop the work, they stopped it. But later, they resumed it, saying the Minister has asked them to do so. They must have obtained permission from the ASI before carrying out any kind of work. We have lodged a police complaint in this regard.”

On the other hand, the concerned corporator said the land belongs to the BMC, suggesting that they don’t need permission to carry out any work on the land. 

“The land belongs to the BMC. Without knowing it, they (the ASI) had earlier constructed the wall. However, it has been done for the temple’s development. The temple’s Kedar Gouri tank construction work is underway. A portion of the wall has been demolished so that a JCB machine can go up to the construction site. Prior to this, the minister had also discussed with the ASI authorities and they had also given their permission,” said Biranchi Narayan Mahasupakar, corporator. 

“Since the plot belongs to the BMC, we will also lodge a complaint against them for constructing a boundary wall on the BMC plot,” he added.