BIHAR: A government doctor’s area of interest in Bihar is not confined to the medical profession and community health services only, as his efforts also persuaded the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to start excavation of a Buddhist stupa in Kesariya in east Champaran district, which turned out to be the world’s tallest stupa.
Dr Parameshwar Ojha, who served as east Champaran district’s chief medical officer (CMO), said that he along with former MPs Kamla Mishra Madhukar and Prabhawati Gupta, and also the then district magistrate of east Champaran Awadhesh Sharma persuaded ASI to start excavation in Kesariya after Buddhist remains of archaeological value were found there. Lord Buddha had spent some days in Kesariya before going to Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh where Lord Buddha had delivered his last sermon and also attained Mahaparinirvana (salvation) in 483 BC. To ensure that Kesaria emerged as a place of tourist attraction, he also devised the idea of organising a festival there.
“I had already seen how former chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad and a noted social worker Rishikant Mishra, who was completely blind, had made Vikramshila by organising Vikramshila Mahotsava,” he added.
Dr Ojha along with other enthusiasts started organising Kesaria Bodh Mahotsava in 1997. Their consistent efforts persuaded the state government to hold the festival on its own from 2007.
Even in his medical profession, Dr Ojha has helped various sections of the society by going the extra mile. He is also the secretary of an NGO, Basara Educational and Welfare Society, which is involved in providing various community services. The society has demanded from the horticulture wing of the Centre’s archaeology department in Bhubaneswar to fill up pits surrounding the Buddha stupa and also plant medicinal plants to make the area beautiful.
Dr Ojha said that the society had written to superintending archaeologist, ASI, Patna circle, on November 30 last year for the excavation and protection of Raniwas mound where Buddhist remains had been found.
Dr Ojha was also president of Buddha Seva Sansthan from 2011 to 2018. He continued to serve the society even when he was transferred to the police department as a medical officer. When he was posted as a doctor in Bihar Military Police (BMP)-9, Muzaffarpur, he had also organised a seminar with the cooperation of the government personnel against AIDS. Later, when he was transferred to Patna Police and was posted at police hospital in the state capital. Dr Ojha also recalled active support extended by former Senior Superintendents of Police of Patna, Sunil Kumar and Amit Kumar, for the success of his initiative.
Dr Ojha also took the initiative to organise health camps even in those villages where police personnel were reluctant to visit due to naxal activities. On his intervention, a medical team, including senior doctors from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC) and doctors from Muzaffarpur had gone to Kesaria Mahtosava in 2010 for the benefit of visitors to the festival.
The society has distributed over 2,000 blankets, shawls and other warm clothes among the poor and the needy in the winter. Society is giving special focus to the upliftment of the most deprived Mushahar community. It has distributed blankets, shawls and sarees among Mahadalits in Paraiya, Sahebganj and Kesaria blocks in Muzaffarpur district. As many as 24 Panchayats have already been covered.