The Centre on Monday withdrew the controversial draft heritage draft bylaws of the National Monument Authority (NMA) for the 12th Century Puri Shree Jagannath Temple succumbing to public pressure.
Political parties of Odisha, too, had opposed the bylaws.
The decision to withdraw the bylaws came after a delegation of BJD MPs led by Bharturhari Mahatab and BJP MPs led by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi met Union minister of culture Prahlad Singh Patel and lodged a protest.
They demanded that the new proposed regulations be withdrawn immediately.
Soon after meeting the BJD and BJP MPs, the Union culture minister tweeted, “Direction has been issued to withdraw the draft heritage laws. In future action with regard to Puri will be taken in consultation with mutual agreement.”
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who visited the Puri Shree Jagannath Temple on Monday morning, said: “I thank the people of Puri who have sacrificed their land for development of Shree Mandir. Their sacrifice will not go waste. Nobody can stop the work of Lord Jagannath. Central government should withdraw the NMA bylaw notifications.”
The draft heritage bylaws prohibit any construction work within a 100-metre periphery of the temple. Apart from the prohibited area, there will be no construction within another 200-metres of it without permission.
The first 100 metres will be declared as prohibited zone and the other area will be known as regulated zone.
Earlier, servitors of the temple on Sunday held a demonstration demanding immediate withdrawal of the draft heritage bylaws. Most of the servitor families reside within 300-metre periphery of the shrine.
If the law had been implemented, the servitors would have been worst affected. Noticing the resentment of servitors, Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) backed by the Odisha government on Sunday wrote a letter to NMA urging it to consult the servitors who are stakeholders in the temple.
In his letter to the member secretary, NMA, chief administrator of SJTA Dr Krishan Kumar pointed out that a large number of habitations (Sahis) around the shrine are inhabited by servitors and are more than a millennium old.
He also underscored the importance of the services of these servitors to the Lord, which have been going on since time immemorial.
“As they are (sevayats) are likely to be severely and adversely affected by any intervention of the authorities like this draft notification, they must be consulted before any process to restrict their rights is undertaken by the NMA. This is also important as any adverse impact of sevayats have a direct bearing on continuity of Niti-Kanti (rituals) of Lord Jagannath,” he said.
Kumar has also pointed out that the Odisha government has recently acquired the land and properties for strengthening safety and security of the century-old shrine for the Shree Jagannath Heritage Corridor project. The land has been taken within 75 metres periphery of the shrine.
This project aims to provide drinking water, toilets, cloakrooms and Queue Management System to the pilgrims.
“Any regulation which has the potential to restrict development of facilities and amenities on land voluntarily contributed to the Lord will hurt their sentiments,” Kumar said in his letter.
“If the NMA is still of the view that any further regulatory framework of any nature is required to protect and further the cause of the Mula Peetha (original shrine) of the Lord, it should have a detailed consultation and discussion with members of the Shree Jagannath Temple Management Committee (SJTMC) before any such fresh attempt is made,” Kumar said.
The servitors had threatened to move court to repeal the draft notification.
The NMA released the draft laws on January 18 and had sought public opinion on this by February 18.
