Tourists apologise for Yoga in front of Taj
Yoga Nahin Hoga (No Yoga), if one has chosen Taj Mahal as the venue. Five women tourists learned it the hard way, when they were made to apologise for performing Surya Namaskar in front of the monument of love in Agra recently. Four of them were performing the ‘asanas’ while the fifth one was shooting them on the red sand stone platform in front of the monument. When the ASI team rushed in to stop them, explaining that such acts were not allowed there. The women -- four from Agra and one from Aligarh -- were allowed to go after tendering a written apology mentioning that they were not aware about rules.
‘Sacred rice’ distributed ahead of temple event
Even as the Ayodhya temple trust is making preparations to welcome over 7,000 guests for the January 22 consecration ceremony, it has requested crores of other devotees to celebrate the occasion at their respective homes, villages and temples and visit Ayodhya at a later day. The ‘Akshat’ (sacred rice) has been sent from Ayodhya to over 5 lakh villages through RSS and VHP volunteers to be distributed for the puja on January 22. An RSS official said ‘Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Ram Lala Pran Pratishtha Grih Sampark Maha Abhiyan’ is one of the largest public relation campaigns.
Anti-encroachment drive to begin soon in city
The administration of Lucknow — LDA, municipal corporation and police commissionerate — is embarking on one of the biggest anti-encroachment drives to get the banks of Kukrail river vacated in City of Nawabs. The drive will be started from December 15 and will cover over 1,100 houses, many of them standing there for over two decades. LDA officials say that most of these houses are illegal and made on the river banks which are being vacated for a beautification project — Kukrail Riverfront Project — the budget for which has already been approved. Those displaced are being given houses, but residents living there for years are finding it hard to move.
Namita bajpai
Our correspondent in Uttar Pradesh
namita.bajpai@ newindianexpress.com