BHUBANESWAR: After the Puri heritage corridor project, the Odisha government is in a spot over the Shri Lingaraj temple ordinance following the Centre’s objection to it as it feels the proposed law is outside the competence of the State legislature.
The State government is busy finding a way out of the situation as the ordinance was passed in the State Cabinet in December, 2020 to bring the Lingaraj temple and its eight associated shrines in Bhubaneswar under a separate law. The aim was for development and beautification of the shrine and its adjacent areas for which the State had unveiled the Ekamra Kshetra Development project in 2019.
Sources said the State government is contemplating to comply with the Centre’s objection to get the assent for the ordinance and bring a fresh Bill in the July session of the Assembly incorporating the changes. The correspondence between the Centre and the State government over the ordinance is going on for the last one year.
The Ekamra Kshetra development project covers an area of 1126 acre with an outer core of 476 acre, intermediate core of 504 acre and inner core of 145 acre. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced projects worth `103 crore in December, 2021 for development of Ekamra Kshetra in the first phase.
This is for the third time that the Centre sought a clarification from the State government over the ordinance. The Culture Ministry of the Centre on September 16, 2021 had informed the Odisha government after video conference meeting with the State officials to incorporate a provision as far as the 12 Centrally protected monuments are concerned. The provisions may be in consonance with the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (AMASR Act), it said.
The Cabinet had on September 29, 2021 approved the proposal of the Centre and amended the ordinance by incorporating a new sub-clause. It had also complied with the second set of queries from the Centre in February, 2020.
Now the third letter of the Centre of March 23, 2022 forwarded to the Chief Secretary on March 31 more or less raises the same questions. The Centre in its third query has sought clarifications on certain clauses of the ordinance that are in conflict with the AMASR Act, 1958. The ordinance covers 12 Centrally-protected monuments, including the Shri Lingaraj Temple and three ancient tanks.
Currently, the Lingaraj temple is governed by the Odisha Hindu Religious Endowment Act, 1951, which is a common legislation for most shrines. The ordinance has provisions of forming a 15-member committee with a senior Hindu IAS officer to be appointed as its chief administrator on the lines of Jagannath Temple in Puri, which is governed by the Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955. According to the 1958 Act, new constructions are not allowed in the prohibited area (100 meters from a protected monument).
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Culture Ashok Chandra Panda strongly protested the Centre’s objection and said the Centre can seek clarifications on the ordinance, but cannot stop it. “It should clarify whether the ministries used the same yardstick for the development of Kashi Viswanath, Kedarnath and Somnath temples,” he said.