PANAJI
Taking its contentious proposal to restore sites allegedly destroyed during the 450-year Portuguese rule a step forward, the State government has sought representations from the public identifying these and also petitioning restoration.
In an advertisement issued by the Archeological Department on Wednesday, the government has invited the public as also NGOs and associations to submit proposals identifying such sites across Goa.
The representations are to be made to the Director of Archeology in writing latest by November 31, the notice published in some newspapers said.
The representations, according to the advertisement, must be accompanied with evidentiary documents, photographs or any other material to substantiate the proposals.
The proposals may be sent either by post to the Archeological department office in Mala, Panaji or by email at [email protected] so as to reach latest by November 31.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had in the current fiscal’s budget made a specific provision of Rs 20 crore for the restoration and reconstruction of temples and heritage sites destroyed during the colonial rule.
When Sawant first announced the proposal to restore old destroyed temples in his budget speech, a raging debate ensued both inside the House and outside as to the intent of the move.
He was accused by political opponents of “deliberately” raking up a potent communal issue with the move aimed at serving his right-wing BJP’s suspected agenda of polarising society for political reasons.
“We cannot forget Goa’s history. The government’s intention is to renovate the temples which were destroyed during the Portuguese regime,” Sawant had said in his budget speech.
Goa’s Catholic minority accounts for a sizeable 27% of the population but both the dominant communities are known to live in communal harmony, although a divide has off and on surfaced and suspectedly been exploited politically.
There is no clear policy formulated to identify which temples or sites will be restored but Archaeology Minister Subhash Phaldesai is on record in the House that only those where there is “no dispute” will be taken up.
History records that the Portuguese, early in their nearly 450-year rule since the 16th century destroyed several temples.
