BVHA Meeting, Aug. 11, 2010. Radha Damodar temple

The Minutes of the Braj Vrindavan Heritage Alliance

Place: Radha Damodar Temple

Date: August 11, 2010

Time: 11 a.m.

Chair: Thakur Shri Damodar Ji Maharaj through His servant Shri Nirmal Chandra Goswami

Those Present: . Shri Nirmal Chandra Goswami, 2. Shri Tamal Krishna Brahmachari, 3. Shri K.G.Gupta, 4. Prof. K.M. Agrawal, 5. Shri Ramesh Chandra Sharam (Regional Officer A.S.I.), 6. Shri Yogesh Agrawal, 7. Ms. Veena Sharma, 8. Shri Pradyumna Pratap Singh, 9. Acharya Shrivatsa Goswami, 10. Baba Sevak Sharan, 11. Shri Sushil Chandra Sharma, 12. Acharya Chandra Prakash Sharma, 13. Ms. Vimla Pandey, 14. Ms. Gandharvika Dasi, 15. Ms. Katie Walter, 16 Acharya Naresh Narain, 17. Shri Jagadananda Das, 18. Jagannath Poddar, 19. Shri Purna Chandra Goswami Advocate, 20. Shri Tota Ram Upadhyay, 21. Shri Ram Narayan Brajwasi, 22. Shir Kanika Prasad Goswami, 23. Shri Ravindra Kulshreshtha, 24. Shri Madhu Mangal Shukla, 25. Acharya Mridul Kant Shashtri, 26. Prof. Jerry Carney (USA), 27. Dr. Laxmi Goutam, 28. Shri Kanhaiya Gupta, 29. Shri Krishna Nandan Agrawal, 30. Acharya Devendra Chaitanya, 31. Shri Devendra Dixit, 32. Dr. Mahendra Pratap Singh, 33. Shri Om Prakash Shrivastava, 34. Shri Indra Prakash Pahuja, 35.Shri Pramod Rastogi, 36. Shri Sudhanshu Kumar, 37. Shri Gopal Goswami, 38. Shri Abhishek Shrivastava, 39. Shri Gouri Saini, 40. Shri Bal Krishna Goutam.


The following points were discussed:

• Shri Ramesh Chandra Sharma, Regional Officer of the Archaeological Survey of India, presented a detailed report on what steps have been taken on the restoration of ASI-protected monuments of Shri Jugal Kishor, Govinda Dev, Radha Ballabh and Madan Mohan Temples. He said that 96 notices have been served to the people who have illegally done construction work around these temples in their houses. Unfortunately they did not take cognizance of any of these FIRs. However, the Director General of ASI does have powers to get the illegal structures demolished through the district administration, which in the first place should have stopped then being constructed.
  
• It was suggested that the ASI should work closely with the owners of the ancient temples, ghats and buildings having archaeological importance to conserve the heritage buildings. It is not necessary that ASI acquire those buildings but it can always provide its technical support to restore them taking the owners into the confidence.
  
• The proposed "ropeway" (overhead cable car from Jaint village to Banke Bihari) is completely irrelevant in Vrindavan’s case as it is not situated in hilly area. Moreover the ropeway will leave a negative impact on Vrindavan’s economy and will be beneficial for just one temple. The Right to Information will be sent to the concerned departments finding more details about it.
  
• The meeting’s chair Shri Nirmal Chandra Goswami suggested that a separate federation of the temple trusts be formed under the aegis of the BVHA.
  
• It was decided that Shri Jayant Chowdhry, Member of Parliament from Mathura should be invited to the next BVHA meeting.
  
• Jagannath Poddar was asked to continue to convene the meetings and follow up the minutes of the meeting.