E-Paper
UP chief minister, lawmakers to visit Ayodhya on Feb 11
Before visiting Ram temple, the MLAs will go to Hanumangarhi temple to seek blessings of Lord Hanuman, says Assembly Speaker
LUCKNOW Chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Uttar Pradesh lawmakers, including those from the opposition, will visit Ayodhya on February 11 for darshan of Ram Lalla. Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana informed the House on Tuesday that he will lead the MLAs to the temple town.
“The MLAs will assemble in the Vidhan Bhawan at 8am and we will leave for Ayodhya by bus and reach there by 11 am. Before visiting Ram temple, the MLAs will visit Hanumangarhi temple to seek blessings of Hanumanji,” he said.
The lawmakers will visit Ram Temple at 12.30pm, have darshan till 2pm and will leave Ayodhya for Lucknow at 3pm. SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav and other MLAs had urged the Speaker for the Ayodhya visit.
“I had discussed with chief minister Yogi Adityanath about the visit of the MLAs. The travel itinerary has been finalized after his approval,” he said.
The Speaker also granted permission to the MLAs to take along their spouses to Ayodhya, after a request was made in this regard by Mahesh Trivedi, BJP MLA from Kidwai Nagar assembly seat in Kanpur.
Iqbal Mehmood, Samajwadi Party MLA from Sambhal assembly seat, said during Ayodhya visit, lawmakers should be also allowed to visit Dhannipur where the mosque will be constructed on the land allotted on court order.
The Speaker said after the construction of the mosque, if the lawmakers wished to visit the spot, he would have no objection.
“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will also visit Ayodhya on February 11 along with the cabinet ministers to have darshan of Ram Lalla,” said agriculture minister Surya Pratap Shahi, who is in-charge of Ayodhya district.
Earlier, the CM and cabinet ministers’ Ayodhya visit was scheduled on February 1, but it was deferred in view of the rush of devotees in the temple town. After the consecration ceremony, Yogi Adityanath visited Ayodhya to take stock of the situation and directed officers to regulate movement of pilgrims and facilitate darshan of Ram Lalla without any hiccups, said the minister.
DEVOTEES POUR IN
Meanwhile, four Shraddha special trains ferrying devotees from Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh arrived in Ayodhya on Tuesday. Pilgrims from Bihar also reached the temple town in 1,500 buses while 5,000 devotees also came here from UP’s Amroha.
On Wednesday, nine special trains carrying devotees from Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, North-East, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will reach Ayodhya. Each train will be ferrying 1,800 pilgrims. From Meerut, 2,500 devotees will also visit the temple town on Wednesday.
On Tuesday till 4pm, 1.50 lakh devotees had darshan of Ram Lalla, he said.
