E-Paper
VHP to transport soil, water from holy places in Bengal for Ram temple event
Though the Trinamool Congress government has clamped biweekly lockdown across the state and full or partial lockdown is in force in parts of several districts in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases, VHP workers have been travelling across the state to collect the holy soil and water.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) has collected soil from famous temples and places of pilgrimage spread across West Bengal as well as water from several rivers for the bhoomi pujan to be performed at the site of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on August 5 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to lay the foundation stone.
Though the Trinamool Congress government has clamped biweekly lockdown across the state and full or partial lockdown is in force in parts of several districts in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases, VHP workers have been travelling across the state to collect the holy soil and water.
“We maintained social distancing norms during the exercise. Because of the pandemic only one man from Bengal will travel to Ayodhya with the soil and river water,” said Sourish Mukherjee, head of the VHP’s media cell in Bengal.
VHP workers have collected soil from a large number of sites such as the Madan Mohan temple at Cooch Behar district in north Bengal, the temple of Kapil Muni at Sagar Island in the Bay of Bengal, Dakshineswar temple near Kolkata where Ramkrishna Paramhans was a priest and Kalighat temple located near chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s residence.
Similarly, water has been collected from the confluence of Saraswati, Kunti and Hooghly rivers at Triveni in Hooghly district, the Hooghly river near the Iskcon temple at Mayapur and several other places.
The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust on Saturday issued an appeal to all saints across the country to perform puja in their respective temples and Maths from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm on August 5. Champat Rai, general secretary of the Trust, requested people to watch the live telecast of Bhoomi Pujan on television and light earthen lamps at home in the evening.
A similar call was issued by the VHP to saints and seers associated with the front. It said the Bhoomi Poojan day must be celebrated keeping in mind the guidelines issued by state administrations to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
“We will follow the same rules in Bengal. People have been asked to stay at home and watch the ceremony on television. They will sing devotional songs and offer prayers at home,” said Mukherjee.
Nabendu Kumar Bandopadhyay, a state leader of the Hindu Jagran Manch, said, “Our organisation too will celebrate the day through prayers at homes and temples. There will be no public gathering.”
