New Delhi: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) is likely to pass a resolution Thursday that will grant legal status to a makeshift structure that has been erected at the site where a Hanuman Temple stood in Delhi’s Chandni Chowk.
The corporation had on 3 January demolished the decades-old Hanuman Temple, on the orders of the Delhi High Court, as part of the ongoing Chandni Chowk beautification plan.
The makeshift structure was erected overnight last week, with North Delhi Mayor, the BJP’s Jai Prakash Singh, claiming it was done by “Hanuman devotees”.
On Tuesday, all parties in the North Delhi Municipal Corporation reached a consensus to support the proposal granting legal status to the makeshift structure. The resolution is likely to be passed in the House meeting Thursday. It will then be sent to the lieutenant-governor for final approval before implementation.
Mayor Jai Prakash Singh confirmed the development to ThePrint. “Since both BJP and AAP seem to be in agreement about giving legal status to the temple, then we might as well not turn it into a political issue since everyone wants the same thing.”
Amidst this, a letter written by the Chandni Chowk MP and Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan to the Delhi L-G Anil Baijal has surfaced. In the letter dated 21 January, the MP has sought reconstruction of Hanuman Mandir at the central verge in Chandni Chowk where it stood.
Issue had triggered political tussle
The issue had in January triggered a tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which heads the government in Delhi, and the BJP, which governs the NDMC, the civic agency that carried out the razing exercise.
Mayor Prakash, however, said the parties have now set aside their differences and have reached a consensus.
“We all agreed to support the decision with a positive mind. Being in majority, we could have passed the proposal on our own, but we wanted to take everyone on board,” Prakash said. “We will send the proposal to the Delhi government and also to the religious committee for the final nod, so that legal status can be granted to the temple.
“Different party leaders are anyway going and doing puja at the temple,” he added.
Leader of the opposition in the house, AAP’s Vikas Goel, also said that they too are keen for legal status to be granted to the structure.
Senior Congress councillor Mukesh Goel, however, questioned the mayor for not calling an all-party meeting when the civic body filed an affidavit in Delhi High Court ahead of the demolition.
“When the temple was being called out for encroachment, both AAP and BJP were busy accusing each other. None of them made the effort to actually save the structure,” Goel said. “And now they are eager to take credit for the new structure.”
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