No fresh foundation laying for Ram temple
Ram Mandir Trust chief Mahant Nritya Gopal Das on Friday clarified that there will not be any foundation laying ceremony for the temple in Ayodhya since the foundation had been already laid in 1992 after the Babri Mosque demolition and the foundation cannot be laid again and again.
He told reporters that he had met Prime Minister Modi at his residence here along with other trust members on Thursday to invite him for the “Bhoomi Pujan,” a sort of prayer of the land, to start the construction. He said the PM assured to visit Ayodhya soon as he also wants construction of a grand temple at the earliest.
The Mahant said the trust’s second meeting in Ayodhya on March 3 and 4 would take decisions on the formalities to be completed to start construction of the temple at the earliest.
He said the VHP-backed Ram Janmabhoomi Trust that he heads has already drawn a blueprint of the temple that will be improved upon to make it grand with the help of architects and engineers, particularly because PM Modi has also given to the trust the surrounding land acquired by the Centre in 1993 besides the entire 2.77 acres of the disputed land allotted for the temple construction.
The Mahant said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s former aide Nirpendra Misra, a 1967 batch IAS officer of UP who heads the temple construction committee, has been invited to the Ayodhya meeting on March 3-4 to discuss how to start the construction at the earliest.
He said the bricks collected from all over the country by the VHP as also stone carvings done in Ayodhya will be used in the construction but it is left up to Misra how to do it after consulting the architects and the builders. He said the committee members would be appointed in consultation with Misra.