Historical Basudev Than lies in shambles

By our Staff Reporter

Lakhimpur, Jan 7: Shree Shree Basudev Than in Dhakuwakha subdivision of North Lakhimpur has been lying in a dilapidated condition since the last two decades. The Than has been facing many problems regarding maintence and transportation system. Countless demonstrations have been carried out and many protests have been staged by different organizations but these did not bear any fruit.

Basudev Than remains dark at night due to lack of lights in the campus and the roads to Basudev Than are in the worst condition, which has been a prime reason for the decrease in the number of foreign tourist and devotees. The negligence of the government towards the historical Basudev Than has caused resentment among the devotees.

“The government has never taken any initiative to preserve the historical place and accordingly, no major funds have been received till today for the maintence of Shree Shree Basudev Than. Our local MLA has provided a minor enhancement which has turned out to be beneficial for the Basudev Than,” said Birandra th Goswami, committee member of Shree Shree Basudev Than.

He added, “There is requirement of a parking lot to park the vehicles of the devotees. Solar lights were provided by tiol Hydro-Power Corporation (NHPC) but these stopped functioning after two years. Basudev Than remains dark at night, with no lights in the temple premises. Dol-Yatra is organized each year during Holi and more than 9,000 devotees arrive from various places of Assam and other parts of the country. Many foreign tourists visit during the time of Holi. Therefore, a single guest house is not efficient to accommodate the devotees. We request the government to provide some major funds to maintain the Basudev Than which has been in the Dhakuwakha region since the Ahom rule in Assam.”

“The roads to Basudev Than are in a pitiable condition. The number of devotees is decreasing gradually due to this. There was a time when during Holi countless devotees gathered to worship Lord Krish (Basudev) in Dol-Yatra and now, due to lack of concern of the government towards this religious and tourism spot, it has been left unpreserved and underdeveloped. It is not possible to maintain the temple premises with the dotion of the devotees and all the committee members are not so fincially sound to meet all the requirements of Basudev Than in regard to maintence,” said Goswami.

“The condition of the roads is deplorable. Political leaders make promises during election time but later forget to take steps for the development of the remote areas. All pleas made to the district administration and the local MLA to repair the roads have yielded no positive outcome,” he added.