Christian officer removes temple from the hospital

August 20, 2013

Shravan Shuklapaksha 14, Kaliyug Varsha 5115

Protesting Hindu Employees

More than 150 Hindu employees of the Naidu Hospital near Pune Railway station, went on one day protest on Monday against the hospital's Christian superintendent, as he removed a small temple of God Dhanvantari (Lord Vishnu) on Saturday. All the employees tied black strips on there shoulders and gave slogans against the superintendent Benedict Francis. The incident happened on Saturday afternoon, when Francis removed the temple, which was on the ground floor of the hospital. Police did not filled any complaint over this case and told the employees to settle down the issue.

Destruction of temple

“We have installed the idol and constructed temple in May 2011 for worship. But he did not wanted the temple in the hospital and always use to tell for removing it. There is no reason to remove it and we want it reconstructed at that spot as early as possible. While taking this decision he did not took anyone of us into consideration and directly gave the orders to remove it.” said Sanjay Chavhan one of the employee of the hospital. Another employee Mallika Chikka told, “Repeatedly arguing and talking with Francis, he was not ready to keep it at the same place. He has kept the idol in one of the store rooms in the hospital. We want Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) should take strict action against him and transfer him from here.”

Idol was kept in the store room

On Saturday evening only, at around 4 pm after having lot of arguments with the hospital staff Francis finally gave back the idol to the employees. Then it was kept on a table near the same spot where the earlier temple was there.

When a reporter contacted Francis he said, “I am not against any employee of the hospital, my reason behind removing that temple from there was many patients while walking spit near the temple. To avoid any problems and to keep cleanliness I removed it permanently. But now by doing this, if someone’s feelings are hurt we will reconstruct the temple again.”

Devout Hindus are protesting on following contact details - Phone:  9689931118 and (020) 26058243, 26058842, 25501235 (Ref : JustDial) Address:  Raja Bahadur Mill Building,                Sasoon Road,                Pune Railway Station,                PMC- 411001, Maharashtra