Jains launch Save Sammed Shikharji campaign, take out protest march in Dharwad

HUBBALLI

Protesting against the move to declare the Jain pilgrimage centre, Sammed Shikharji, as a tourist place, hundreds of members of the Jain community took out a huge protest march in Dharwad on Wednesday under the Save Sammed Shikharji campaign.

Members of the Jain community from Dharwad, Amminabhavi, Garag, Navalur, Sattur, Hubballi and surrounding places congregated at Kala Bhavan in Dharwad from where the huge protest march was taken to the Deputy Commissioner’s office.

Sri Bhatakalanka Bhattaraka Pattacharya of Sonda Jain Mutt, Sri Dharmasena Bhattaraka of Varur Jain Mutt and eminent members of the Jain community, including Niranjan Kumar, Ajit Prasad, Jeevandhar Kumar and Padmalata Niranjan Kumar, and others flagged off the protest march, apart from leading the participants.

Addressing the protestors, the seers said that Sammed Shikharji located in Jharkhand is a place associated with 20 Jain Tirthankaras and thousands of Jain monks who dedicated themselves to the service of society and are revered by Jains across the globe.

However, the Forest Ministry of the Union government has now declared Sammed Shikharji as a tourist place, which poses a great threat to the religious nature of the place. Once the place becomes a tourist place, then a lot of recreational facilities will come up in the area, spoiling the sanctity of the place, which, in turn, will hurt the sentiments of the crores of members of the Jain community, they said.

Another threat is that those who did not know the importance and sanctity of the place will just treat it as a picnic spot resulting in littering and the place might end up becoming a den of unwanted and illegal activities. So, the government of Jharkhand and the Union government should consider the matter as serious and immediately withdraw the move, the seers said, demanding the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the matter.

Subsequently, the protestors submitted a memorandum addressed to the Prime Minister to the officials of the district administration.