Ahead of Guru Ravidas temple foundation event, a controversy over its location

SAGAR: Community leaders at Guru Ravidas Ashram in Sagar drict have demanded that a ₹100 crore Sant Ravidas temple proposed to be built in the drict’s Badtuma village be relocated closer to the exing ashram in Karrapur village. Chief miner Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced the plan to construct the memorial temple for Sant Ravidas in February (Twitter/EnLariya) The renewed demand comes days before Prime Miner Narendra Modi on August 12 lays the foundation stone for the temple dedicated to the poet-saint at Badtuma village, about 18km from the ashram. Guru Panchamdas, the caretaker of the Ravidas ashram at Karrapur, said “Guru Ravidas is horically associated with Karrapur and not Badtuma village where the foundation stone of Ravidas temple to be laid the PM”. The horical ashram is built at the location where Sant Ravidas stayed during his spiritual tour around 600 years ago and the Ravidas Kund came up at the spot from where he gave his message of social harmony, Guru Panchamdas added. Chief miner Shivraj Singh Chouhan first announced the state’s plan to build a grand temple at Badtuma village during his speech at Sagar dinct’s Saint Ravidas Mahakumbh in February this year. Community leaders said a joint memorandum to shift the temple to Karrapur was recently given to the drict collector the Guru Ravidas Ashram Karrapur, Ahirwar Mahapanchayat and Guru Ravidas Mahasabha. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Pradeep Lariya, who represents the Naryawali segment in the assembly, agreed with the ashram that Karrapur would have been the preferred location but underlined that the government opted for Badtuma because of the availability of land. “I spoke with the saint community and others over this issue. We thought of constructing the temple at Karrapur village but it required 12 to 14 acres of land which was not available. Subsequently, we selected the spot in Badtuma,” Lariya said. He promised the ashram that the government will continue to help them in the future. Sagar collector Deepak Arya said they were holding discussions with the leaders who submitted a memorandum on the issue. “We are hoping that we will able to resolve it and they will agree to the new place.” Ahead of the August 12 event, possessions in honour of Sant Ravidas started from five locations in Madhya Pradesh and will pass through 50 dricts. The chief miner, who confirmed PM Modi’s presence at the event, said on July 25 that soil from 53,000 villages and water from 315 rivers of the state will be collected for the construction of the temple during the Sant Shiromani Shri Ravidas Smarak Nirman Samrasta Yatra. It will start from Singrauli, Balaghat, Sheopur, Dhar and Neemuch on Tuesday and culminate at Badtooma in Sagar drict.