They will hold a public meeting on February 7 at 4 pm at the Marcaim panchayat hall to protest the installation of a new idol. Villagers and devotees from across Goa are expected to participate in the meet.
Addressing the press at the Marcaim panchayat hall on Monday, SDNS president Shailendra Panjikar, who is also a sitting panch and former sarpanch of Marcaim, said that the Navdurga Temple on the banks of the Zuari River is around 800 years old and is public property.
He claimed that the temple committee had recently decided to replace the old idol of Navdurga with a new one on February 21 without taking the villagers into confidence. He further said that the gram sabha unanimously passed a resolution on November 8, 2015, opposing the replacement of the old idol as the temple is public property. They also submitted resolutions to the Mamlatdar and Chief Minister to retain and preserve the old idol.
Panjikar said that the villagers’ forefather had worshipped the old idol and they cannot imagine a new idol taking its place. He also said that the villagers love the idol and want it retained and preserved, just like the old idols of famous temples, such as Vithoba idol in Pandarpur, Mahalaxmi idol in Kolhapur, and Balaji idol at Tirupathi Temple in Tamil Nadu.
Panjikar also claimed that the temple committee had rejected the villagers’ request to retain the old idol and were firm on installing a new one. He alleged that the committee was not spending money on social activities nor was it helping needy students with the donation it receives from the public.
Panjikar further said that as per a Supreme Court verdict, those temples where puja is performed, public participation is involved and which receives donations from the public are called public temples. He claimed that Navdurga temple receives public donations, performs puja and olds a zatra, for which lakhs of people participate and donate money, which proved that the temple it is public place.
He lamented that the temple committee was still claiming that the temple is private property. He questioned why the government had appointed the mamlatdar as the administrator for temples if they were private property. He also urged the government and archaeology department to look into matter and preserve the old idol as it was installed during the Kadamba rule.
Meanwhile, the Navdurga Temple committee has stated that the SC verdict is not applicable to the Navdurga Temple in Marcaim, which is governed under the Devasthan Regulation 1933. The committee also stated that the temple had never accepted donations from the general public.
The committee further said that the Temple had been constructed by the families mentioned in the ‘Compromisso’, and hence, it is a private temple. As the temple is private, the panchayat resolution to preserve the old idol is not valid and binding on the temple committee.
