BHUBANESWAR: The BJD and BJP continued to engage in one-upmanship over the withdrawal of draft heritage bylaws of the National Monuments Authority (NMA) for Sri Jagannath temple at Puri on Tuesday. While the ruling BJD praised Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for the withdrawal of the draft bylaws, the BJP praised Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Culture Minister Prahlad Patel for the rollback.
A delegation of servitors from the Jagannath temple met the Chief Minister at the Naveen Nivas to thank him for the withdrawal of the draft notification of the bylaw. Stating that everything was possible due to the blessings of Lord Jagannath, Naveen assured the delegation that the development work of the temple will be expedited. Meanwhile, a delegation of BJP leaders including Patel, Union Minister for Petrol and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan met the Union Home Minister at New Delhi and thanked for the withdrawal of heritage bylaws.
Shah assured the delegation that there will be no problem for the Jagannath temple till the Narendra Modi government is at the Centre. They discussed development of Jagannath temple, Konark and Lingaraj temple with Shah.