Mega Plans for Mahabodhi

Patna, June 29 (Times of India). The Times of India report on the plans announced after the inclusion of the Mahabodhi Temple in the world heritage list includes details of the proposed destruction of Bodhgaya which is being denied by the local District officials. According to the Times of India the majority of Bodhgaya is to be demolished and its inhabitants moved to a new location outside of the town as part of its "development".

"The development plan was announced jointly by the Magadh division commissioner-cum-secretary Temple Advisory Committee Hemchand Sirohi and the Gaya district magistrate, Brajesh Mehrotra. Earlier in the day, the Mahabodhi Temple was included in the list of World Heritage sites at the Budapest meeting of the UNESCO committee for World Heritage sites.

As per the announcement made in Bodh Gaya on Friday evening, a buffer zone has to be created within a radius of one km from the temple to meet the conditions laid down by UNESCO for the privilege of the temple entry into the UNESCO list.
Mahabodhi Temple, it may be recalled, is the second monument from Bihar, Bengal and Jharkhand to be included in the World Heritage Sites list. All shops, business establishments, government buildings and residential premises would be relocated within a period of next five years to create the buffer zone.

Strict restrictions have also been imposed on all future constructions outside the buffer zone. To commemorate the inclusion of the temple in the UNESCO list, the foundation for the Buddha Meditation Park and Yashodara Kunj were laid down on Friday afternoon. The divisional commissioner also announced the plan to develop the Kalchakra ground, Pargati Maidan and other pilgrim infrastructure. Some foreign monasteries too, are likely to be relocated and hotels demolished for the creation of the buffer zone.The residents displaced from Bodh Gaya would be resettled on a 1,100-acre government land to the west of Gaya-Dobhi road and the colony would be named as Gautam Nagar.