Cuttack, Dec. 19: A Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) unit today submitted more than 10,000 affidavits before the Justice Bimal Prasad Das Commission at the office of the Commission of Inquiry here.
The aim of the VHP unit was to enter its name into the Guinness Book of World Records by submitting the highest number of affidavits in a single day. It submitted 10,344 affidavits in 11 packets.
The government had appointed the commission to bring in reforms into the functioning of the Jagannath temple. The VHP's Odisha unit had written to the Guinness Book of World Records authorities earlier this month to intimate it about the record attempt.
"We submitted 10,344 affidavits and we expect it to satisfy the conditions laid down by the board for our official entry into the Guinness Book of World Records," Badrinath Patnaik, VHP Odisha unit (east) working president, told The Telegraph.
"If they are convinced, we are confident we will make our way into the record books without any barrier by February," he said. Badrinath said they were also vying for entry into the Limca Book of Records. VHP members from across the state and the general public have signed the affidavits.
In the affidavits, the VHP suggested posting an officer of the superintendent of police rank to be exclusively in charge of the Jagannath Temple Police and Jagannath Temple Security for the security of the temple and its surrounding area. <>It also suggested that the donations received through pindika, thali, bhitaradarshani, parmanika and hundi should go directly to the temple fund without any involvement of sevaks. The affidavits said: "But each sevak, without any claim to the receipts of donations, should be suitably remunerated, on monthly basis, according to the seva he performs."
Setting up of a residential educational institution under the CBSE curriculum, offering courses from kindergarten with spiritual and religious content and admission of students belonging to sevak families with special emphasis on tradition and customs of Srimandir were the other suggestions made in the affidavits.
The other suggestions included the introduction of a one-year graduate diploma course on Lord Jagannath Temple Management Study at Jagannath Sanskrit Viswavidyalaya with reservation for youths from sevak families, who would then be given preference in the Lord Jagannath Temple Administrative Service. The course should be designed in consultation with the Sankaracharya of Puri Govardhan Pith and Mikuti Mandap, the affidavits said.
"Though December 4 was the last date for submission, the commission had extended the deadline to December 20 after requests from several persons and organisations," commission secretary B.P. Parija said.
The commission had placed drop boxes in the offices of all 30 district collectors, the sub-collector (Bhubaneswar) and the commission's office in Cuttack. Around 800 affidavits had been received by Saturday.