Image Courtesy:indianexpress.com
Varanasi district administration has acquired 30 schools, and studies will be postponed in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, till December 15, as the space will be used to house security forces coming to town ahead of the December 13 inauguration of Shrikashi Vishwanath Temple Dham. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is the Member of Parliament from Varanasi, will inaugurate what has been called his “dream project”.
The ₹800 crore corridor project has been designed by Bhimal Patel, the architect behind the proposed Central Vista redevelopment project. As reported by Livemint, the “Prime Minister’s dream project this Corridor will shorten the period and will set a direct link between the temple and the Ganga river.”
The Prime Minister and Chief Minister and other personalities will be in Varanasi, and the state police has deployed forces drawn from other districts too. According to Jagran, “The district administration is making arrangements to accommodate the additional police force, PAAC, coming from outside” in the 30 schools now acquired by the commissionerate. According to news reports, “On the instructions of Commissionerate Additional Commissioner of Police, District School Inspector Dr. Vinod Kumar Rai has directed the principals and managers of these schools to provide support to the security forces for their stay from December 12 to December 15.” So, the regular school activities will not be held from December 12 to 15. The police have reportedly already inspected many schools and some of the additional may start staying there from December 11.
The Indian Express reported that phase 1 of the redeveloped project, covering the temple precincts will be opened to the public following the inauguration and the second phase that involves the redevelopment of the banks of the Ganga will be ready by January 2022.
Meanwhile, according to an IE report, the Gujarat BJP has also made elaborate plans to celebrate the occasion in the state. The state BJP president C R Paatil and Convener of ‘Divya Kashi, Bhavya Kashi’ initiative Gordhan Zadaphia shared elaborate plans of the celebration. Patel, told the media that “the inauguration of the temple, under the ‘Divya Kashi, Bhavya Kashi’ programme, will be live telecast on LED screens at 579 taluka centres and 41 district-level centres. Similarly, live telecast of the same programme on Doordarshan will also be streamed on television sets at villages having Shiv temple in the state. Also, a programme to perform Jalabhishek will also be held at such temples by party workers.”
Paatil claimed the project and renovations were “necessary since it sustained a lot of damage in the times of Mughals” and added that due to the “haphazard planning of Kashi, people were not able to see the Ganga river even after it is situated on the banks of the river.” Zadaphia claimed that the BJP was not doing this ahead of elections in UP and other states, “When the foundation stone for Ramjanmabhoomi was laid following a verdict of the Supreme Court, there was no election. We do not do election oriented politics; we do politics of sanskar.”
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