Be it Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Ambani or for that matter a host of other VIPs, their visits to this temple town evoke a welcoming smile on the faces of residents. And yet they heave a sigh of relief when the VIPs depart.

“VIP visits to the Srinathji temple as also the rush of tourists during the festival season generate good business for us but it also becomes impossible for the pedestrians to even snake their way through the narrow, congested roads,” says Raghunath Prasad, who sells ornaments offered to the temple deity Srinathji.

Widening of roads is the most important election issue in this historic temple town. Some of the main roads leading to the temple, narrow as they were, have over the years been encroached by shops on either side, shrinking the motorable roads to barely a few metres in width. Piles of garbage have only accentuated concerns over general hygiene.

Unlike in neighbouring constituencies where electricity, water and development are major issues, the town is witnessing an election focused on just one issue: Why the delay in city expansion and beautification project?

C P Joshi, a potential chief minister candidate and Pradesh Congress Committee president, who otherwise attacks ruling BJP on a range of issues when campaigning here, devotes a major part of his speeches to attacking the BJP government for not moving fast enough on the project that was conceived in 2005.

BJP’s firebrand candidate Kalyan Singh, in his public speeches, blames it all on the Congress alleging that it has been encouraging opposition to the project. Joshi in turn says that the protests come from a section of the shopkeepers who feared displacement, and, that it was for the BJP government to address the issue comprehensively. “The government displayed a lack of political will to implement the project that would have done a lot of good to the city and made things easier for the visiting tourists,” says Joshi.

Nathdwara town, 48 km from Udaipur city, has majority of shops selling items related to Srinathji, his different dresses, ornaments, pictures, CDs/cassettes or puja items. Most of the shops are located in the narrow lanes surrounding the main temple. Besides, the temple belongs to the Pushtimargi sect of Vaishnav community. The principal deity – Srinathji – a deity form of Lord Krishna, brought from Mathura due to fear of invasions in medieval period, is decorated eight times every day for eight different darshans, which also requires proper crowd management as pilgrims are seen queued up for hours every day.

Under the first phase of the Temple Extension Plan, envisaged in 2005, an exhibition hall, a waiting room for 25,000 pilgrims, restaurants, clock rooms, lockers, public utility services, temple board offices and 28 donor cottages were to be constructed in an area of 2,25,000 sq feet. The total project cost was Rs 22 crore. Three years have gone since the project was initiated and Rs 14.83 crore have been spent so far but no construction has taken place except for the casting of podium and floor slabs. Apparently, the second phase of construction at the 45,000 sq feet area is also in shambles.

Chief priest of the temple, Mukhiyaji Narhariji P Thakkar apprehends that the project, afflicted by “the usual bureaucractic delays may not see the light of the day”. “Our family members, who are required to reach the temple by 3 am to prepare for the morning prayers, find it difficult to navigate the roads at that hour,” he says, adding it is for the local administration to get its act together.

As a local official working on the project put it: “There are 25 shops and eight kiosks in the Delhi bazaar area, which need to be removed. However, the administration, apprehending protests and law and order problems, has not been able to do anything.” But, how will the issue be resolved? “We have apprised the government about the problem,” he says.

Other factors that have delayed the project include cost escalation. “Following a steep rise in price of cement and steel, the contractor stopped work and demanded an upward revision in his payments,” he said. The temple board has “referred the matter to the state government”, and, “reply is awaited”. Officials, caught in the red tape, say that though the contractor has agreed to resume work for now, the issue needs to be addressed comprehensively.

As shopkeepers and traders mount increasing protests against the project, BJP candidate Kalyan Singh confidently asserts that once people are taken into confidence, they will shed their opposition. Meanwhile, shopkeepers allege that the project administration is adopting an arbitrary approach and, shops of those with influence are not being demolished. Even as traders and residents alike bemoan narrow roads, they also seem determined to oppose the project that seeks to just what they are asking for.

And, during poll time, rival candidates woo voters with promise of securing the execution of the much-talked-of project for expansion and beautification of the city.

Source: Time of India.indiatimes