UP Cabinet's Feb 1 Ayodhya Visit Postponed

The proposed visit of UP's cabinet ministers to Ayodhya’s Ram temple on February 1 has been postponed.

Sources in the government said that a decision in this regard would be made after February 10.

The postponement of the visit has been taken in view of the fact that all such VIP visits have been put on hold for some time due to the surge in the number of devotees reaching Ayodhya.

“Now that routes have opened and the weather has improved, we are expecting the number of devotees coming to Ayodhya to rise sharply over the next few days. To ensure that the general public is not inconvenienced in any way, the government has decided to space out VIP visits,” said an official.

In fact, after an appeal was made to VIPs to inform the UP government at least a week in advance of their intended visit to Ayodhya, sources said that till Tuesday, no such intimation had been received and therefore, it was unlikely that any major VIP visit would be organised for another week.

“That does not go to say that no VIP would be visiting. Everyone is welcome and if someone has organised a trip on their own, they would be visiting like an ordinary person. Government organised visits are highly unlikely during this week,” the official said.

Ayodhya saw an unexpected five lakh devotees pour in a day after the temple was inaugurated, requiring Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to fly into the town to take stock of the situation and for senior police and government officials to personally supervise crowd management.

Since then, an average of 2-3 lakh people have been visiting the temple daily.