NEW DELHI: Two days after the Supreme Court ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya belonged to the deity Ram Lalla, the Centre on Monday swiftly began the process of forming a trust to handle the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Government sources said a team of senior bureaucrats from various ministries, including home and finance, will decide on the make-up and rules of the trust.
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They added that bureaucrats have been asked to proceed with utmost caution and study the 1,045-page Supreme Court order in detail before deciding on which parties and groups to include in the trust. This newspaper has learnt that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has already initiated discussions with the Ministry of Law and Justice and has also sought the advice of Attorney General K K Venugopal in the process of forming the trust.
“No decision has been taken yet but consultation with the law ministry and AG has begun on how to proceed on setting up the trust that will fix the modalities for the construction of the Ram temple,” said a senior government functionary.
However, it was not immediately clear whether the Home Ministry or the Culture Ministry will be the nodal body for the trust. Sources indicated that one of the possible dates for starting construction of the temple could coincide with Ram Navami in April next year.
In a landmark verdict on Saturday, the Supreme Court decided the century-old Ayodhya land dispute, backing the construction of a Ram temple by a government trust. For Muslims, the court ruled that they be given an alternative five-acre plot for a mosque. The Sunni Waqf Board, one of the litigants in the dispute, has said a final decision on accepting the land will be taken later this month.