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Pilgrim’s progress: Authorities charged up Friday, June 22, 2001

AsianAge
Ahmedabad, June 20: The city is gearing up for the Rathyatra with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, temple authorities, police and citizens’ groups working in coordination with each other. Joint rounds and meetings between these authorities are going on to ensure a smooth celebration.

Talking to The Asian Age, one of the officials of Jagannath Temple Trust, Mr Dhiren Rawal told that no loudspeakers will be a part of the celebrations due to the earthquake. Moreover, in all, 78 buildings were demolished in part or in toto as they were unsafe and on the route of the Rathyatra.

Mr J.G. Hingrajia, deputy municipal commissioner, central zone, said that 100 buildings were identified as unsafe. Later on 12 more buildings were added to the list. In all there are 12 buildings that are still controversial and the AMC has decided not to take any action except deploying police officials for security reasons.

Meanwhile, precautionary public notices at 600 points will be put up to warn the people not to gather in huge numbers under such buildings. Also, 40 AMC personnel will be stationed at 6 different points on the Rathyatra route to take care of any emergency that might arise. They will be divided into six-member teams with four supervisory engineers and each team will have proper equipment to handle a building collapse.

Meanwhile, meetings of various citizens’ groups to are being held regularly to maintain peace and harmony at the time of Rathyatra. The temple authorities have also geared p to celebrate Rathyatra.

Recounting one of the incidents, Mr Rawal said, once Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, popularly known as the frontier Gandhi, visited the city in 1969 after he was released from the prison of Pakistan. While he was in the city, communal riots broke out and he organised a padyatra to ease the tension among the two communities in the city.

The padyatra started and reached the Jagannath temple where Khan expressed his desire to visit the temple as he had heard a lot about it. But he was sceptical as he was a Muslim. As he started moving in the opposite direction of the temple, a loud voice of mahant Sevadasji came from behind and asked Khan to come in the temple.

“Don’t feel awkward, Lord Jagannath is waiting for you, there is no discrimination in his court,” he said. Everybody present there including Khan was moved by the gesture and the incident had a lasting effect on the mindset of people. This further strengthened the symbolic value of Rathyatra as propagating religious harmony.

“The Rathyatra is a symbol of India’s multi-cultural identity and it should be celebrated with full joy irrespective of religious identity,” said the mahant of the temple, Rameshwardasji Maharaj.

News Source : The AsianAge Ahmedabad Edition [ The coolest Newspaper for city ]

 

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