The Hindu community across the country is getting ready to celebrate their biggest religious festival, ‘Durga Puja’ from October 22. For that reason, idols of Goddess Durga are being made in most of the temples in the country.
However, the idol of Goddess ‘Durga’ is being made in the dark at the Hindu temple in Savar, on the outskirts of the capital, due to lack of electricity.
The temple was established with a grant from Prime Minister’s office many years back, at Moistapara area of Birulia Union in Savar. Beside the temple, 30 indigenous families, and their children living nearby have been living without electricity for at least 3 years. Locals alleged that the authorities of Dhaka Rural Electrification Board-1 severed their electricity connections, being influenced by a housing company of the area named ‘Dakkhina City Real Estate’ centering a land-related feud three years ago. Even they did not reinstate the severed electricity connections despite a Dhaka court recently declared the verdict of a case regarding the land in favor of the indigenous family.
When contacted, Azahar Ali, Sr. General Manager of Dhaka Rural Electrification Board-1, told Bangladesh Post, “Actually I am not aware about the matter. However, provisionally we are arranging to connect power to the temple, and further measures will be taken after checking legal ownership paper of both parties”.
Visiting the area it was seen that, the artisans were making idols of Goddess ‘Durga’, and decorating it in the low-light of battery based charging lamp. Expressing resentment, Ramprashad Sarker, an artisan of idols told The Bangladesh Post, “I have never seen that the temple’s electricity can also be severed”.
Sree Narayan Chandra Voumik, a man from the victim indigenous families told The Bangladesh Post, “Our ancestries used to work for Nawab Sir Khaja Salimullah Bahadur. They used to look after the horses and elephants of Nawab. Later Nawab Sir Salimullah Bahadur donated us 125 decimal of land here to live on. Since then, we have been living here”.
He alleged the authorities of the Dakhina City, bought some land in the area, and started land business few years ago. At one point, the housing company started illegally grabbing Khas Land. Even they already grabbed and filled the whole Kumarkhoda canal, with sand.
He added, “Since then, they started to make several types of conspiracy to evict us from our land. Even they had Bomb strike on us during our religious festival few years back. Finally they conspired to severe our electricity connection, claiming ownership of the land. Later, however, we filed a case with a Dhaka court and the court declared verdict in our favor”.
He further said, “However, we do not understand, why the authorities of Dhaka Rural Electrification Board do not reconnect our electricity connection, whereas we showed and submitted all the paper of ownership including the verdict’s copy to them and applied for connection”.
When contacted, Shamim Ara Nipa, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Savar over phone, she said that she does not know about any such incident. She disconnected the call, while asked whether she would take any measures regarding the matter, considering people’s suffering.
