Minister Harichandan Puri temple wood not used in making Digha idols, threatens legal step over ‘Dham’

ODISHA Law Minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Monday said that according to an interim investigation report, no sacred wood from the Puri Jagannath temple was used to make the idols installed at a temple in Digha in neighbouring West Bengal, as was alleged by various quarters.

- PBD BUREAU/PTI

The titular king of Puri, Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, and the Odisha government also urged the authorities in West Bengal to refrain from using 'dham' with newly built Jagannath temple at Digha and stop projecting the sea there as “Mahodadhi” (the great ocean).

Though both seas at Digha and Puri are the same, the Bay of Bengal, the one at Puri is called ‘Mahodadhi' as the Odisha town with the 12th-century Jagannath shrine is considered a sacred place of pilgrimage.

The law minister also threatened to take legal steps against the West Bengal government if it does not stop referring to the Digha temple as a “Jagannath Dham”.

The alleged theft and use of sacred wood of the Puri temple in crafting idols of the shrine at Digha and the treating the West Bengal temple as a “Jagannath Dham” by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who inaugurated it last week, sparked a huge controversy.

The law minister asked the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) of Puri on May 2 to investigate the matter. The administration of the temple in Puri is under the law department of the Odisha government.