India sets up independent trust to build Ram Temple

INDIAN Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the government’s decision to set up a temple trust to build the Ram temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday (February 5).

The government has also decided to transfer the 67.703 acres of land to the trust.

The trust will be called ‘Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirath Kshetra’, which will be empowered to make all decisions related to building the temple.

Home Minister Amit Shah said that there will be 15 trustees, and one trustee will always be from Dalit society. He noted that this with boost “social harmony’.

India’s Supreme Court on November 9, 2019, asked the government to set up a Trust within three months and also allot five acres for building a mosque.

“I have come before you to give information on a very important and historic topic. This issue, like crores of people, is close to my heart and consider it my fortune to speak about this topic. This is connected to Ram Janamsthan Bhoomi and the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya,” Modi said in Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament.

Modi also announced that the Uttar Pradesh government had agreed to give five-acre land to the Sunni Waqf Board as directed by the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya case.

The Supreme Court awarded the title of the 2.77-acre disputed land to Ram Lalla Virajman, the child deity and ruled that this land should be handed over to a temple trust to be set up by the government.

A review filed against this verdict was dismissed by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice SA Bobde.