LUMBINI, Feb 14: The Save Lumbini Struggle Committee has demanded that half of the income generated from monetary offerings by visitors to the Mayadevi Temple at Lumbini should be provided to the Lumbini Cultural Municipality. The committee has stated that locals have made an incomparable contribution to the conservation and development of the Lumbini area, including providing land for the Lumbini master plan. It complains that the income from the Mayadevi Temple and other places is not invested in local development.

In a 19-point memorandum recently submitted to the Lumbini Development Trust, the committee has called for amending the LDT statute to make provision for selecting the office-bearers, including the vice-chair, treasurer, and member-secretary, and two members on the LDT Governing Board from among the locals. It has also demanded that the Mayor of Lumbini Cultural Municipality, a federal lawmaker, and the Provincial Assembly member from the Lumbini area should be made ex-officio members of the Board.

Similarly, the committee has demanded that the face and structure of Mayadevi Temple should not be altered, and unauthorized structures built against the Lumbini master plan should be immediately removed. It also called for giving continuity to the regular worship, the evening aarati ritual, and lighting of lamps inside the Maya Devi Temple, as well as making arrangements for observing the temple free-of-charge.

The committee has called for immediately formulating procedures allowing the organization of peaceful religious assemblies, religious talks, and tourism promotion programs, and the operation of the International Assembly Hall. Likewise, it called for promptly starting the construction of a school, a well-equipped hospital, and a garden inside the LDT premises as stated in the master plan. The memorandum, among other things, calls for keeping the Mayadevi Temple open from 5 am to 10 pm and reserving a place for the offspring of Pandit Ganga Prasad Pandey, who has been performing worship at the Temple for generations. It has also demanded giving priority to locals while appointing employees and promoting employees who have worked for the LDT for a long time to permanent positions.

Additionally, the Struggle Committee has demanded managing identity cards for the farmers whose land was acquired for the implementation of LDT master plan, providing compensation for the damage to crops caused by wild boars and the blue bull and other wild animals, immediately operating the electric buses and vans received from grant assistance from the Asian Development Bank targeting domestic and foreign visitors, conserving the Simal, Peepal, and Bar trees in the area, and maintaining an archive of more than 39 statues and valuable archaeological objects found so far in the course of the archaeological excavation in Lumbini.

 
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