Friday November 10 2006, KENDRAPARA(:visakeo) The Dalits of Keraragard village under Rajnagar block have postponed their decision to barge into the 300-year-old Jagannath temple in the village on November 19 after the district administration promised to sort out the issue in a week.
According to Sangram Mallick, a Dalit leader and president of Ambedkar-Lohai Bichar Mancha, the district administration and police on Thursday discussed the matter with the Dalit leaders and upper caste people. It was decided that the Dalits will postpone their plan for at least a week.
Earlier, many Dalits had warned of forcefully entering the Jagannath temple to avenge the humiliation of four Dalit women who were allegedly assaulted by priests and upper caste people in the temple last year after they entered the sanctum sanctorum.
At the meeting, Dalit leader and president of Jagannath temple entry committee Rabindranath Sethi asked the Collector to take action against the upper caste persons who have been preventing Dalits from entering the temple.
"Dalits are only entitled to see the deity through nine holes of the temple. But they have no right to enter the temple," said Anil Kumar Bala, the president of Jagannath Surakhya Committee of Keraragard. Meanwhile, Rabindra Narayan Bhanjdeo, the present King of Rajkanika and Managobinda Jena, the manager of Rajkanika palace on Wednesday met Dibyasingh Dev, the Puri 'Raja' and sought his help to solve the problem. "The Puri King has refused to intervene," Managobinda Jena told this website's newspaper.
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