LINGARAJ TEMPLE

PARASURAMESWAR TEMPLE

MUKTESWAR TEMPLE

RAJARANI TEMPLE

Bhubaneswar, April 18: The surroundings of the city’s heritage sites would soon wear a cleaner look with a new initiative launched today by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the tourism and culture department.

The BMC workers working under sanitation contractors would take special steps to clean up around 10 selected monuments including Rajarani, Mukteswar, Parasurameswar, Swarnajaleswar, Kotitirtheswar, Ananta Basudev, Papanasini, Vaital temples and Ekamra Vana.

The BMC sanitation squads will put extra dustbins at these places to facilitate collection of waste. They will ensure that litter does lie on these temple premises.

BMC’s city health officer Ashok Kumar Panda said: “Earlier the temple premises used to be cleaned regularly, but now we have augmented the enforcement with addition of two more dustbins at each temple. We have asked the workers to ensure the cleaning like under the ‘Clean Bhubaneswar Campaign’. The heritage structures are also given more importance.”

Keeping in view of a future plan of the tourism and culture department to launch a heritage trail, an inter-departmental meeting was held on the first week of April and it was decided to ensure the cleaning process for which funds will come from the culture and tourism department.

“The cleaning service by BMC for the temples will be an extra burden on us, but we are happy to perform our duty as it is part of the conservation and preservation process of our ancient monuments and they also contribute towards earning of valuable resources for the state. However, we have some limitations as for two monuments protected by the Archeological Survey of India. We cannot provide the cleaning service inside their compounds as we have to purchase tickets on daily basis for entry. For all the rest eight we will provide cleaning service both inside as well as outside,’’ said a sanitation contractor of the Old Town area.

On the occasion of the World Heritage Day, an awareness programme on the heritage monuments was also organised by the tourism and culture department.

School, college and university students participated at the event and discussed the role of all stakeholders in conservation and preservation of out heritage sites.

Nikita Rout, a student of School of Integral Education, Khandagiri, said: “We will make people aware not to disfigure our monuments and stop spitting and throwing wastes and even papers in their compounds. If we, the students, work united as the future citizens, the fate of the monuments will be fine.’’

Post-graduate student of archaeology, Utkal University, Sashmita Mohanty said: “Writing on monuments with chalk sticks and charcoal has to be stopped and the students and youths have to take a lead role in this regard. Already the advertisements figuring actor Aamir Khan to stop this act has inspired us to contribute something in this regard. So we have made a promise to lodge protests when we will find people involved in such disfiguring anti-national act near monuments. The heritage monuments of the city in Old Town area represent the rich tradition of Orissan temple-building architecture and we have to conserve them at any cost.’’