Kolkata: Amid allegations that extra sacred neem wood from Puri Jagannath temple has been used to craft the idol for Digha temple, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called it ‘baseless and fabricated’.
“Why would we use stolen neem wood? We have our sources of neem wood. The servitor had brought the Jagannath idols. Such allegations are completely fabricated and baseless. When I have done a skywalk for both Kalighat and Dakshineswar temple then I am good. When I do Durga puja or Kali puja then I am good. Some people got jealous just because of Jagannath temple. Is it a crime to worship Lord Jagannath in West Bengal?” asked Mamata in Murshidabad.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also urged that people of Bengal residing in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar should not be beaten.
“I have heard that people are being beaten in Odisha when they are speaking Bengali. Even there are over one crore migrant workers in Bengal but we don’t do anything that is unfair,” further mentioned Mamata.
Notably, it was being alleged that the left over neem wood from ‘Nabakalebara’ in 2015 was used to make Jagannath idol in Digha in an unfair way.
Her remarks came a day after the Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) in Puri questioned the credibility of a senior servitor of the use of surplus neem wood.
