AGRA: A section of Hindu activists on Thursday created a ruckus as the ten-day notice period of Indian Railways for shifting a 250-year-old Chamunda Devi temple from the platform of Raja Ki Mandi railway station in Agra is set to expire on Saturday.
In the notice issued on April 20 to the temple’s priest, as part of their bid to remove illegal encroachments on railway lands, the railway authorities had stressed that the temple structure was causing inconvenience to passengers as well as safety of train operations.
Before the dust could settle on this matter, they issued another notice to the caretaker of a muslim shrine (mazar of Bhure Shah Baba), Sajjada Nashim, on April 25.
Speaking on this, one of the activists of a self-declared outfit Rashtriya Hindu Parishad Bharat alleged that this is being done to hurt religious sentiments of the community and claimed that “notice was issued to mazar just to fool the people”.
“Several governments came to power but no one raised objections except the present DRM,” the activist said and he threatened to commit suicide by jumping before the moving train if any move was made to demolish the temple.
Digvijay Nath Tewari of Bajrang Dal told TOI, “We will not allow the temple to be shifted even by an inch and if anyone attempts to demolish it, we will stage a massive protest. We have already informed senior leaders of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal about the notice.”
Moreover, shouting slogans against the railway authorities, the activists of the self-declared outfit said that they will not tolerate dictatorship.
Organisation’s president Govind Parashar told TOI that they will stage a protest, if the temple is demolished. He also demanded the removal of Agra’s DRM.
Meanwhile, the divisional commercial manager and public relations officer for the Agra division of the North Central Railways, Prashasti Srivastava said that the encroachments are being removed in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court and notices have been served to all.
