Daijiworld Media Network – Chikmagalur (SP)

Chikmagalur, Mar 14: The Supreme Court, on Friday March 12, gave its nod for undertaking  repairs of the controversial cave housing Guru Dattatreya Peeta and Bababudan Darga in Bababudangiri Hills near here. A division bench comprising Justice Ravindran and Justice Radhakrishnan gave this verdict, with the condition that the basic structure of the cave should not be meddled with, and that the works should be supervised by the departments of geology and archaeology.

The government had sought the permission to conduct the repairs, as a part of the cave had collapsed due to heavy rains on June 28, 2008. The government had sanctioned Rs 2.09 crore for the repair works. The works were taken up by M/s Binyas Contech Pvt Ltd, Bangalore, on September 1, 2009. The fact that the BJP leaders performed puja to an idol of Dattatreya in the name of initiating the repair works at the cave, angered several people. G S Chandrappa and Muktiar Ahmed of the JDS had filed a petition in the High Court, alleging that minister K S Eshwarappa, MP D V Sadanand Gowda and MLA C T Ravi had violated the court orders, in the presence of the district administration officials. The High Court, while issuing stay order for the repair works,  had said that the Datta Peeta issue has to be settled by the Supreme Court.

State general secretary of the BJP and MLA, C T Ravi, has welcomed the verdict. He said that repair works will begin soon. He also clarified that the dispute centres around the cave and for a distance of 200 metres from the cave, and hence there is no bar for conducting development works beyond this limit. He claimed that the tourism minister, Janardan Reddy, has promised to release funds for building lodge, park, and toilets besides developing roads in the non-controversial land in two installments.