Rajkot : Renovation of 550 year old Ramnath Temple comes to standstill, contractor requests for police protection

Rajkot : The renovation of the historical Ramnath Mahadev temple in Rajkot has come to a standstill as BJP leaders have become villains. The deputy collector of province-2 and the nodal officer of the project have written a letter to the district collector recommending him to resume work with police protection.

The Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board has given a grant of Rs 3.50 crore for the development of Ramnath temple 3 years ago. No changes have been made in the Shivling design, only the design of the temple premises has been prepared. But the design was changed after the protest by Pujari and BJP leaders. At that point the controversy was over and the renovation work of the temple was started.

Meanwhile, construction work on the temple premises was resumed and after half the work was completed, BJP leaders stopped work with a demand for a change in the free design. The BJP leaders threatened the contractor to build elsewhere instead of the design, after this, the contractor quit and was replaced by a new contractor. But the free design was changed. Thus, the renovation work of Ramnath temple has been stopped for the last 3 months. Now the province official has recommended to the district collector to give police protection to the contractor to start the work.

The bridge will be widened, the priest’s room will be relocated
The Yatradham Development Board has given permission to widen the bridge which is at the root of the controversy over the renovation of the temple. Apart from this, the place of the priest’s room will also be changed.

The renovation work of the Ramnath temple has come to a complete halt. There is a scenario that the BJP leaders have become an obstacle in the development work. Therefore, it is likely that the matter will reach the Chief Minister.