NORTH MCD MEET TO CONFER LEGAL STATUS ON NEW STRUCTURE IN CHANDNI CHOWK

NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will explore the possibilities of providing “legal status” to the makeshift structure that has come up on the central verge of the main Chandni Chowk road on Thursday night, barely a few metres away from where a now demolished Hanuman temple stood.

The old temple, which was located on the pavement of the carriageway towards Red Fort, had been demolished by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation on the directions of the Delhi high court on January 3.

On Saturday, the Public Works Department (PWD) wrote to the Delhi Police asking them to take action against the construction. The PWD in its complaint mentioned that the structure has come up without any permission from any of the agencies executing the Chandni Chowk redevelopment project.

North corporation mayor Jai Prakash said he has called a meeting on Monday to check if the temple can be provided a legal status.

“I have called a meeting tomorrow (Monday) to explore options to provide a legal status to the temple as it is a centre of faith of thousands of Hindus living in the area. Once a legal status is given, the structure will remain at the site and cannot be removed,” Prakash said.

He said that the meeting would be attended by not only the political executives, but also officials of legal and land-related departments. “If we find that it is possible to grant the temple a legal status, then we will draft a proposal and get it approved in a House meeting on Thursday,” Prakash said.

On Friday and Saturday, leaders of all the three political parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress — had visited the makeshift temple in Chandni Chowk and offered prayers, performed Hawan and chanted religious hymns such as Hanuman Chalisa and sundar kand.

On Sunday too, locals went to the makeshift temple and offered prayers.