The Ayodhya district administration has temporarily closed Ayodhya’s borders to manage the unprecedented rush at Ram Mandir, three days after pran pratishtha.
According to officials, a huge pilgrim rush is being witnessed at Ram Mandir and thousands of police personnel have been deployed to manage the crowd. Hindustan Times reported that blockades have been set up 15 kilometres ahead of Ayodhya borders to control traffic from Basti, Gonda, Ambedkar Nagar, Barababanki, Sultanpur and Amethi routes. Only emergency vehicles are being allowed to enter Ayodhya.
The publication reported that state-run buses and trains to Ayodhya have also been cancelled.
Gaurav Dayal, Ayodhya commissioner said, “We are trying to ease the situation. We have allowed emergency vehicles and vehicles carrying perishable items to enter Faizabad but all entries into Ayodhya town are sealed off. All traffic towards Ayodhya district have been prohibited.”
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh government has advised VIPs planning to visit Ayodhya to contact the government or the temple trust prior to their visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also advised ministers to defer their visit to the temple till March, considering VIP protocols could cause inconvenience to pilgrims.
According to reports, over 2.5 lakh devotees offered prayers at the Ram temple on Wednesday and five lakh persons visited on Tuesday. “Devotees made donations totalling Rs 3.17 crore in a day on 10 counters opened after the consecration ceremony and through the online mode,” Anil Mishra, trustee of Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust told PTI.
In the wake of the overwhelming response of devotees, the temple administration has extended the timings for darshan so that the maximum number of devotees can be accommodated. Devotees can now offer prayers between 6am and 10pm as against the earlier timings of 7am to 11.30am and 2pm to 7pm, PTI reported.
-with agency inputs.
