LUCKNOW: The outbreak of deadly coronavirus has put a brake on the activities towards the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. However, the members of Shree Ram Teerthakshetra Trust convened a meeting through video conferencing on Wednesday to share the strategy for the temple construction.
Notably, the 15-member trust was formed by the Centre on February 5 in compliance of the Supreme Court order over the vexed issue delivered on November 18, 2019.
The Temple Trust’s general secretary and senior VHP leader Champat Rai said the preliminary work for the temple construction is on. The iron barricades, which were put up to ensure the security of the birthplace – the Ram Janmabhoomi – and regulate the flow of devotees during darshan, are being removed on a war footing. The exercise to remove the barricades was started after the relocation of the idol of Lord Ram from the makeshift temple at Janmabhoomi premises to a new fibre cast bulletproof temple on March 25, 2020.
“Now with relaxation in the restrictions, very soon the levelling of the land for temple construction will commence,” said Rai. He added that the trust would then convene a meeting of the members to decide the date of ‘bhoomi pujan’ so that the construction can be commenced.
During the video conferencing, the trust general secretary informed the trustees that the work to facilitate the construction of the temple had already begun. As per the sources, the construction work would take place in a phased manner. The first phase was connected with the relocation of the idols from makeshift
temple to temporary fibre structure where the deities would rest till the construction of the main temple completed. The work, in the second phase, was going on with the cleaning and levelling of the temple land on 70 acre Ramjanmabhoomi premises, he said.
In the second phase, the makeshift temple, which was set up after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992, has now been removed after 28 years from the birthplace of Lord Ram.
The first meeting of the trust had taken place in New Delhi on February 19 when the trustees had nominated Ramjanmabhoomi Nyas chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das as its president and VHP leader Chamapat Rai was inducted into it as general secretary. The first meeting of 15-member Trust was held at the residence of Supreme Court lawyer K Parasaran, 93, one of the trustees and one who represented Hindu side during the hearing in case in Supreme Court member.
The second meeting of the trust was scheduled for April 4 but was cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreak.