‘Dham’ signage removed from site of Digha Jagannath temple
The Statesman | 6 May 2025
Amid controversies on whether the Lord Jagannath Temple at Digha in the East Midnapore can be described as “dham”, the signage of “Jagannath Dham” has been removed from the site of the said temple.
Local Trinamul legislator Akhil Giri had claimed that the illuminated signage was a temporary structure that was raised for the purpose of the inauguration of the temple on 30 April.
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“The signage has been removed after the inauguration. There is no other reason behind this development. Construction of a new gate of the temple named after Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is going on. The signage might be raised again after that,” Giri said.
However, Leader of Opposition had claimed that the signage was removed after two controversies over the Digha structure, the first in relation to the structure being described as a “dham” and the second being charges of leftover timber meant for Puri’s Jagannath temple being used to carve deities in Digha.
He claimed that the signage removal happened after it was clear that the adoption of unethical means to create a perception of equivalence between Puri and Digha had failed and those behind such attempts started feeling the heat.
The first controversy was in relation to why the Digha temple was referred to as ‘Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre’ as recorded by the implementation agency of the temple, the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (WBHIDCO).
Legal brains felt that this was done deliberately to avoid controversies as regards constitutional obligations on spending public money from the state exchequer to construct or develop any religious structure.
Then surfaced the controversy over naming the Digha structure as Jagannath Dham Cultural Centre, ignoring the significance of the word “dham”.
As per traditional Hindu belief, there are four dhams, popularly known as “Char Dham”, namely Badrinath, Dwarka, Rameswaram, and Puri.
Apart from that, no other temple or religious establishment can be referred to as a Dham since the word has a special religious significance.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee on Monday refuted allegations by the Odisha government of leftover timber meant for Puri’s Jagannath temple being used for carving deities in Jagannath Temple in Digha.
“They claimed that I had stolen neem trees from there. There are four neem trees at my house. Even idols of Lord Jagannath are being sold, which people keep and worship at their homes,” chief minister Banerjee said at Baharampur during her two-day visit to Murshidabad.
Miss Banerjee said that the neem wood over which controversies are arising was brought by Puri Jagannath temple sevayat Ramkrishna Das Mahapatra, also known as Rajesh Daitapati, who was present at the inauguration of the temple on 30 April.
“He brought it from some other place. I heard that he had been summoned and questioned in Odisha. We all go to Puri. We do not raise so many questions. Why are you so jealous? There is no medicine for jealousy,” the CM stated.
Speaking on the occasion, the CM also reminded the Odisha government on how the latter is dependent on West Bengal on many aspects.
“Where is a shortage of potatoes in Odisha, we supply that. We send engineers from out state when pipelines in Odisha get damaged because of cyclones. The maximum number of tourists to Puri is from West Bengal. What is your problem if there is a Jagannath temple at Digha?” Chief Minister Banerjee questioned.
Speaking on the occasion, Banerjee said that she had received information that Bengali-speaking people are beaten up in Odisha these days.
“This had happened in the past in some other states as well. In West Bengal currently, there are around 1.5 crore people who are from other states. But we will not oppress anyone.
“This is the difference between West Bengal and other states. We will speak to the Odisha government. We do not want any misunderstanding with anybody,” chief minister Banerjee said.