Dhar (Madhya Pradesh): Amid the ongoing Ganesh Utsav celebration across the state, the tribal-dominated Tirla block in Dhar district became a centre of controversy after some tribes accused that some people belonging to the upper caste barred them from installing Lord Ganesh's idol in the village.
The incident was reported from the small Loharikhurd village, a village having 50 families of tribals, including four to five belonging to the scheduled caste and about 100 families belonging to the upper caste.
They accused that they were stopped from celebrating Ganesh Utsav by installing an idol at a public pandal in the village citing needful permission from the concerned authority.
Villagers on Friday submitted a memorandum to the sub-divisional magistrate Deepashree Gupta addressing the district collector Dr Pankaj Jain seeking administration intervention in the matter so that they could celebrate the festival without fear.
The villagers warned about starting a big movement if no action has been taken on the matter.
Social worker Vijay Chopra said that villagers have decided to install an idol of Lord Ganesha at a public pandal, but permission to do so was denied to these people.
In the past also, during the construction of a temple, the people of the tribal society of the village had expressed their willingness to participate in the programme and support the construction but people of upper castes barred them from participation and did a complete program during the night.
This time again people of the upper caste intervened in their celebration. Villagers claimed that the Tirla police have not taken action against people of upper caste so far.
Notably, the entire controversy started about two-year back, when people belonging to the SC/ST community decided to install Dr BR Ambedkar’s bust on government land, but people belonging to the upper caste raised their objection citing that it was government land. Later the bust was placed at the Tirla police station. In this incident, a case was registered against eight persons belonging to the upper caste.
Loharikhurd village falls under the Badnawar assembly constituency and people raised slogans against the cabinet minister and local MLA Rajwardhan Singh Dattigaon.
Meanwhile, when contacted SDM Deepashree Gupta said that we are considering what should be done on this land because it is a disputed situation. Whatever the problem, it will be resolved by discussing it with both groups.
