On August 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is visiting Sitamarhi to perform a massively important ceremony commemorating the foundation stone laying of a majestic temple in honour of the Goddess Sita at Punaura Dham, which is believed to be her birthplace. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will accompany him in the ceremony, which has strong religious and political overtones as the state gears up for the state election in the Assembly.
The foundation stone laying ceremony is carefully planned and will be performed between 1:55 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., wherein Vedic rites and performance of Bhoomi Pujan will be conducted by six acharyas, three of whom will be acharyas of Mithila University and three of Kashi University. Accommodated at the event will be some of the revered saints and seers all over the country who will witness the proceedings. The rituals will also be followed by the interaction of Amit Shah, who is to interact with the gathered religious heads in person and utilize a concise, meaningful chat before proceeding on to address the group of followers.
To the thousands of pilgrims, the programme has the procession to a specially constructed dialogue pavilion where both Amit Shah and CM Nitish Kumar will deliver their speeches to an estimated gathering of around 50,000 pilgrims. Local authorities have also made adequate preparations in place to carry out the event; hence, the ceremony will be carried out successfully. Well-laid security measures and traffic management will enable the event to take place without any problems.
This temple project itself is being conceptualized as a monumental development, with the Bihar government sanctioning more than 882 crore rupees as the cost to be incurred to construct this temple. The design would cover 67 acres of net area where the design comprising lush green areas, exhibition halls, museums, Vedic schools, and guest houses, gardens like Sita Vatika, and Luv-Kush Vatika, and properly planned cultural areas are proposed. The design will be similar to the Ram Mandir built at Ayodhya, which is proposed by the same architect. Majorly constructed out of Makrana stone, the temple will be made to stand at about 151 feet high in an attempt to make it a landmark in a bid to promote religious tourism in the region as well as local employment.
Politically, the project has great legitimacy. Devotees consider it a cultural landmark that Mithila has been longing for. There will be a special branded Sitamarhi-Delhi Amrit Bharat Express, which will also be flagged off to facilitate the pilgrims and tourists to access the state with the vision that the state wants to take Punaura Dham to national prominence.
Overall, the presence of Amit Shah in Bihar today reminds us that the merger of culture and political power is what defines the state because the new Sita temple will remain forever as the symbol of faith, tourism, and local pride.
