Aman Sharma
UP chief secretary RK Tiwari has stated that over 2,000 incidents of stubble-burning were observed in ten districts. Of this, 455 cases were reported in Mathura, 321 in Pilibhit, 316 in Shahjahanpur and 296 in Rampur, despite orders issued by the state government on October 4 and 19 to stop any such incident.
Influential Muslim voices were specially invited or consulted before the decision was taken. While four voices were strictly against filing of the review, everyone voted against the principle of accepting the land.
Shia Waqf Board chairman Wasim Rizvi accused AIMPLB of trying to ‘instigate the Muslims’ and said AIMPLB had no locus-standi in the case. “They are just trying to disturb the atmosphere of harmony,” he said, adding most of the Muslims would not agree with AIMPLB’s decision.
Triloki Nath Pandey, the ‘next friend’ of Ram Lalla who was allotted one-third of the 2.77 acre by the Allahabad High Court as a representative of the deity in court, told ET that Ram Lalla should not be housed in a tent any more.
While Jat leader and JJP chief Dushyant Chautala was already the deputy CM, his uncle and former CM Devi Lal’s son Ranjit Singh Chautala, who won as an independent, was sworn in as minister of state (MoS) with independent charge on Thursday.
Chairman of the board Zufar Ahmad Farooqui said the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board has sought legal opinion on how to implement the Supreme Court’s order granting five acres of land to the board for building a mosque in Ayodhya as there’s no unanimity among the Muslim community on the issue.
The issue seems to be dividing the Muslim community, with one petitioner Iqbal Ansari saying the land should not be accepted if it is beyond the 63-acre acquired area.
The 67-acre area around the temple is full of overgrown vegetation and tall grass with dilapidated buildings as islands. Passing through a narrow corridor, where even two people cannot pass together till the makeshift temple, devotees are not allowed to carry a mobile phone, camera, electronic item or even a pen.
Twitter saw the most number of violations at 5,294 over the last two days. While these accounted for about 64% of all social media violations, there were 2,210 such posts red-flagged on Facebook and 167 on YouTube.
Start of the Ram temple’s construction at Ayodhya may be marked by a special event on Ram Navami, which falls on April 2 next year. Ram Navami is Lord Ram’s birthday. The temple could take two-three years to complete, government sources told ET.
Copyright © 2019 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
