Author: Santanu Banerjee
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: October 14, 2002
The CPI(M)-led West Bengal government
has asked for a central grant of Rs 11 crore for a "total" development
package for Dakshineshwar Kali Temple.
Municipal Affairs and Urban Development
Minister Ashok Bhattacharya has sent a deputy secretary-rank official to
Delhi for the same and the minister doesn't intend to stop at this.
He has similar plans for other Kali
temples, like the one at Kalighat. "These temples are of world fame, why
can't the Centre look after them?" Bhattacharya said.
Though he wouldn't give a straight
reply as to why the non-believer Marxists are taking up the temples' cause,
an insider says the party should have never remained aloof from such events
of immense mass participation. Defending his efforts, Bhattacharya says:
"These are important for us for different reasons - these are tourist spots.
So many people visit these places and they need proper upkeep."
The Left administration was rather
cool when two years back Calcutta Port Trust found that the river Hooghly
had been eating into 12 Shiva Temples.
