Marcaim villagers hold meet, make 3 demands on govt over temple idol

Team Herald
PONDA: Marcaim villagers, who have been agitating last six months under the banner of Shree Devi Navdurga Prathishtan, Sunday held a special meeting in the village.
The meeting has decided to demand the government to dissolve the Navdurga Temple Mahajan Mandal, appoint an Administrator for the temple and scrap the Portuguese-era Mahajan Act discriminating against Bahujans of Goa denying their religious right.
The meeting has set August 15 as the deadline for the government to meet their demands, failing which it has decided to observe a hunger strike at Azad Maidan in Panjim.
The meeting expressed anger at the government for “turning a blind eye” towards their ongoing six-month agitation against replacing the old Navdurga idol in Navdurga Temple at Marcaim by its managing committee, against wishes of the villagers.
On the occasion, Shailendra Panajikar said, “we don’t want money, we want only the Godess and to worship her old idol.”
The villagers are angry at the temple committee for temporarily stopping all religious rituals since March this year. However, despite the ban, the villagers are celebrating their festivals in the temple.
Contending that banning all religious celebrations at the temple as injustice, the villagers have demanded appointment of an administrator for the temple by dissolving the Mahajan Mandal, so that they would able to celebrate many festivals in the coming months.
The government should take note of the villagers’ agitation and should meet the demands of the villagers, Panajikar said.
The meeting held at the Marcaim panchayat hall received tremendous response from the villagers. The meeting unanimously decided to send their demands in the form of resolutions to government.
It may be recalled that Marcaim villagers, under the banner of Navdurga Prathishtan, are fighting against Navdurga Temple Committee’s decision to change the old idol, since past six month. On the other hand, the temple committee claims that it has the right to change the idol.
The villagers claim that the idol is 800 hundred years old and they are worshipping it since the time of their forefathers, therefore, they say, the temple committee has no right to change it.
In support of their demand, the villagers even held a morcha in Ponda demanding the intervention of the mamlatdar in stopping the temple committed from changing the idol of Navdurga.
The villagers even approached the Ponda court and obtained a temporary injunction against replacing the idol.