- Saturday, July 06, 2024
The chief priest of the temple expressed disappointment over the water-leaking issue following heavy rain and said there was no system to drain rainwater out of the premises.
By: Shubham Ghosh
IN A development that would leave many Hindu devotees dejected, the chief priest of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh said on Monday (24) that water was leaking from the roof of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum following heavy downpour on Saturday (22) night.
Acharya Satyendra Das brought allegations of negligence in the construction of the temple and said there was no system to drain out rainwater from the temple’s premises and urged the authorities to take corrective measures.
The chairman of the temple construction committee, Nripendra Mishra, visited the temple after senior officials were informed about the incident of water leakage and sought repair of the roof and making it waterproof, sources in the temple’s trust said, according to Press Trust of India.
Read: Why Modi’s BJP was left shocked in Ayodhya, its Hindutva powercentre
Speaking separately to the media about the progress of temple’s construction, Mishra said that work on the first floor was on and will be finished by next month, and expressed the hope that the construction of the temple will be completed by December.
Acharya Das told reporters there was heavy leakage from the roof of the temple’s sanctum sanctorum in the first heavy showers that occurred at midnight on Saturday. Rainwater was leaking from the roof directly above the place where the priest sits in front of Ram Lalla’s idol and where high-profile visitors arrive for darshan (auspicious sight), he said.
Read: Modi’s BJP loses in Ayodhya, where PM opened grand Ram temple
“It is very surprising that engineers from all over the country are building the Ram temple. The temple was inaugurated on January 22. But, no one knew that if it rains, the roof would leak. It is surprising that the roof of a world-famous temple is leaking. Why did this happen?”
“Such an incident is happening in the presence of such big engineers, which is very wrong,” he said.
The temple was inaugurated by prime minister Narendra Modi on January 22 on a glitzy occasion which was attended by several dignitaries of the country, including personalities from the fields of sports, films, business and politics.
The temple has been built at a site thought to be the birth place of Lord Rama and replaced a centuries-old mosque which was razed to the ground by Hindu fanatics in the early 1990s.
However, while many had expected that the inauguration of the temple ahead of the general elections would mobilise the Hindu majority voters in favour of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it did not happen as the party lost in the constituency where Ayodhya is located.
The water-leakage issue also took a political twist as the opposition Indian National Congress accused the BJP, which is also in power in Uttar Pradesh, of indulging in corruption in the construction of the temple and building of civic facilities in the temple town.
“Be it the coffin of the martyrs or the temple of God, all these have become opportunities for corruption for the BJP. Even the symbols of faith and purity in the country are just opportunities of loot for them,” Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai, who contested against Modi in Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh in this year’s election but lost, alleged in a statement on Monday.
“It has become clear from the statement of chief priest Satyendra Das that water is leaking in the sanctum sanctorum of the Ram temple built at a cost of crores due to the first rain and there is no proper drainage system,” he said.
The temple, which is still under construction and houses a black idol of Ram Lalla (child Ram) at the moment, has been constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 1,800 crore (£170 million).
(With PTI inputs)
