Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Oct 31: The doors to the rooms here are always open. They let anyone and everyone inside the rooms. Once inside, you will see liquor bottles, cigarette butts, on the floor, and shrubs and plants that have grown around.

This is the guest house built by the tourism department at Sri Karinjeshwara temple in Kavalapadoor village in the taluk. The guest house which was meant for the people to stay, have become the resting places for poisonous creatures. Because of lack of maintenance they are proving to be wasteful.

From the last many years, efforts are being made to develop Karinja temple, which has been attracting tourists because of picturesque nature, and also to develop it as a tourist centre. There are many plans. But if the tourists visit the guest house, they are sure to get inspired to run away.

The guest house was built in 1997 for the benefit of tourists and temple devotees. The guest houses located at the foot of Kodymale forest by the side of a spacious pond have now turned into a centre for illegal activities. Doors of a few rooms are permanently open and liquor bottles can be seen strewn around. Cleanliness is absent and iron benches have gone upside down. A public toilet located near the guest house is covered by bushes. People are sure to feel fearful to go near this toilet as it need not come as a surprise if they come across poisonous creatures. On Aati Amavasya, annual festivals etc thousands of devotees come here. As public toilets are out of use, the people have to resort to open space to relieve themselves.

Health paths and gardens built a few years back are crying for attention.

District in-charge minister Kota Srinivas Poojary, says that development works would be taken up without damaging the historical background of the temple and without allowing artificial things to hog limelight. He says that toilet and other basic amenities would be provided and grants needed will come from tourism and religious endowments departments.