Bhubaneswar, May 17: The Lingaraj Temple authorities seem to have forgotten Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swachh advice in just a month.

On a visit to the shrine on April 16, Modi had asked whether the temple had been cleaned up for his benefit or it is always so.

The servitors and officials had asserted that they kept the premises clean and had even urged the Prime Minister to revisit the temple. Modi had urged them to make efforts to keep the precinct and surroundings of the shrine clean.

But only after a month of the Prime Minister's visit, The Telegraph found that the shrine is littered with heaps of garbage both inside the temple and in surrounding areas.

The temple precincts are full of floral waste, used incense sticks and paper, and things are no better outside.

The Union government is focusing on achieving complete cleanliness under the Swachh Bharat Mission and has taken up several projects to meet the goal. But Modi's cleanliness mission seems to have tripped at the Lingaraj Temple.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, however, begs to differ.

"We have collaborated with the temple administration and are collecting garbage from the temple premises on a daily basis. Waste management is a priority area for the temple. Our officials have plans to design a uniform strategy to achieve complete cleanliness of the monument and its surroundings," said Jena.

One of the oldest shrines in the state, the 11th Century Lingaraj Temple attracts an annual footfall of nearly 4 lakh. It depicts the grandeur of Kalingan architecture. adding there are hundreds of temples in the city which have the calibre to attract more tourists than Jagannath Temple"We have engaged smart city officials to make plans for setting up a religious museum and an art gallery at the plaza to attract tourists," said Jena.