Bulldozers raze illegal structures on the Gundicha temple premises in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, May 13: A devotee climbed atop the Gundicha temple here today and threatened to set himself on fire in protest against the ongoing drive to demolish illegal religious structures in the city.

A constable, who tried to save him, was injured when the devotee, Sananda Mohanty, 37, attacked him with a stone.

Holding a bottle of kerosene, Mohanty demonstrated his ire in public around 8.15am when the enforcement squad was preparing to demolish a portion of the Shyama Shyam Dham Ashram nearby.

Policemen present at the spot swung into action after Mohanty, a resident of Chandni Chowk, set fire to a towel he was carrying with him. Fire-fighting officials sprayed water on him and foiled his self-immolation efforts.

The high voltage drama continued for more than 15 minutes before the police brought down the devotee from the temple top.

A senior official said adequate measures were taken to ensure that the devotee was brought down safely. However, a constable was injured when Mohanty attacked him with a stone.

“We will register a case against the devotee, who attacked a constable on duty when he tried to rescue him. The constable suffered serious injuries on his head and is being treated at a hospital,” said deputy commissioner of police S. Praveen Kumar.

Apart from Mohanty, seven other demonstrators, who were protesting against the demolition of religious structures near Gundicha temple, were also taken into preventive custody.

The protests intensified when the enforcement squad began demolition of a small shrine with the idols of Ram, Shiv, Hanuman and Santoshi Maa on the premises of Gundicha temple.

The drive resumed after a routine break of two days today and a lot of unauthorised construction, including portions of small shrines, were demolished.

The Gundicha temple, which is built over two acres near Belle View, was established in 1996. Later, small shrines of various deities had come up inside its complex.

The temple administration had conducted the rath yatra for the first time in 2000. Since then, the festival was being celebrated in a grand manner.

“We respect the order of the high court. But we had requested two months so that we could conduct the annual rath yatra. The matter is likely to come up for hearing at the high court on Wednesday,” said joint secretary of the Jagannath temple administration committee K. Bhaskar Rao.

Markets at Chandni Chowk remained closed today in protest against demolition of shrines in the Gundicha temple complex.

Earlier, activists of some religious groups had also ransacked a city bus near Ganesh Ghat. They stopped the bus near municipality petrol pump and attacked it with stones and sticks. Over 35 passengers were travelling in the Bhubaneswar-bound bus.

“Two persons initially signalled to stop the bus. Later, three other youths armed with sticks arrived and started pelting stones on the front windshield,” said conductor Jayanta Sahu.

So far, six illegal religious structures, which had come up on the Kathajodi river bed, have been demolished in the drive that began in the city on May 1.

The drive is being carried out by the revenue administration following the 2011 Orissa High Court order that directed authorities to demolish illegally constructed religious structures, which had come up on government land after 1987. Following the court order, the state government had set up a committee with the revenue divisional commissioner (central) as its chairman and the commissioner of police of Cuttack, the municipal commissioner of Cuttack and the vice-chairman of Cuttack Development Authority as its members.

The committee subsequently assigned the deputy commissioner of police, Cuttack, the job of supervising the demolition drive.

Sources said the district administration had identified 164 unauthorised religious structures within the limits of the corporation.

The development authority had identified another 35 such structures in its Bidanasi housing project at Markat Nagar and Sikharpur housing project at Mahanadi Vihar. The demolition committee has divided the city into four zones in the lines of the existing four police zones in Cuttack city and formed an anti-encroachment squad for each zone.

One of the largest structures to have been demolished so far includes the Bedanta Ashram. The ashram was among the 164 unauthorised religious structures identified by revenue authorities in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation area. A senior official said Bedanta Ahram had encroached upon 8.316 acres on the banks of the Kathajodi river on the south-western fringes of the city. According to official records, some of the other major encroachers were Asharam Bapu temple (4 acres), Mahalaxmi temple (3.842 acres), Shyam Shyam temple (2.7 acres), Mausi Maa Mandira (2 acres) and Ramanigameswar temple (1.735 acres).

“Around 200 unauthorised religious structures have been identified for demolition,” deputy commissioner of police (Cuttack) Pravin Kumar had told The Telegraph earlier.