After Lord Jagannath temple, Bengal govt to build Durga temple

Kolkata, Aug 11 (IANS) After Lord Jagannath temple at Digha in East Midnapore district of West Bengal, the state government will set up a Durga temple in the state.

A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the State Cabinet on Thursday evening, where it was also decided that the Durga temple will be christened as "Durga Angan".

The "Durga Angan" would be set up jointly by the State Tourism Department and West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO).

The two bodies will jointly form a trust that will undertake the construction of the "Durga Angan", Power Minister Arup Biswas told media persons on Monday after the Cabinet meeting.

Incidentally, WBHIDCO was also the implementing agency of the Lord Jagannath Temple at Digha.

"However, you will have to wait for some more days to know the place where 'Durga Angan' will be set up. The budget for the project is yet to be finalised. First the venue of the construction will be finalised, and only after that the other formalities will be worked out," Biswas said.

Incidentally, the Lord Jagannath Temple at Digha had already been marred with controversies as the Opposition asked how the state government could spend public money from the state exchequer for construction of a religious structure.

Precisely, to avoid this controversy the temple was officially identified as "Shree Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre" in the records of the state government.

However, controversies further broke out over using the word "Dham" in the name of the Digha structure.

Scholars clarified that as per Hindu religious belief barring the four temples at Badrinath, Rameswaram, Dwarka, and Puri, no other religious structure can be referred to as "Dham".

Controversies also surface over allegations that "Prasad" of the Digha temple, were prepared in sweetmeat shops owned by non-Hindus, which had affected the Hindu religious sentiments.

Since the beginning, BJP had been vocal against sweets coming from non-Hindu shops being distributed as "Prasad" of the Digha Jagannath temple.

--IANS

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