Orissa govt to devise guidelines to rebuild churches

Although the government in Orissa promised to rebuild the damaged churches and prayer halls, little has been done to please the Christians.

To work more efficiently, the Naveen Patnaik govt will formulate a set of guidelines for providing assistance for reconstructing and repairing churches that were attacked in the Hindu rioting since August 23, the murder of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati.

The Kandhamal district administration had asked the Chief Minister’s Office whether pastor training centres, nuns’ hostels and prayer houses will be considered as religious institutions.

The district administration had also asked for guidelines to assess the damages done to churches built on forest land, public land and tribal land. Kandhamal has about 1,200 Christian institutions.

“This has been necessitated since, for the first time, the state Government is going to provide financial assistance to religious institutions damaged during riots. The Orissa Relief Code has no provision for providing assistance in such cases,” said Home Secretary T K Mishra.

"The state government has asked the district administration to submit a report on the church damage within a fortnight," he added.

Archbishop of Cuttack–Bhubaneswar Diocese Raphael Cheenath had earlier in a writ petition sought for a compensation of Rs 3 crore for rebuilding churches and prayer houses in the riot–hit district.

However the state government opposed to this stating that assisting the churches would further aggravate the anger of Kandha tribes.

Over 60 people have been killed, at least 18,000 injured and 400 churches burnt in the wave of attacks that still continues in Kandhamal.