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Faizabad commissioner, magistrate may be sacked

Onkar Singh in New Delhi

Now that the shila daan is over, the government may sack Faizabad Divisional Commissioner A K Gupta and District Magistrate B P Misra for being too strict in implementing the security measures in Ayodhya.

When asked by rediff.com, Minister of State for Home Affairs I D Swami parried the question, but said: "I believe the sants were asked to show their passes even when they went for a dip in the Saryu river. This, I felt, was too much."

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has said it would not mind if the two were to be removed.

"The VHP has not asked for the removal of the two officer, but we would not mind if they are removed because they had unleashed terror on the people of Ayodhya," VHP international general secretary Praveen Togadia told rediff.com

Sources say that Ram Janambhoomi Nyas president Ramchandra Das Paramhans was so upset with Gupta that he refused to hand over the shila to him on Friday. Shatrughan Singh, in-charge of the Ayodhya Cell in the Prime Minister's Office, had to take charge of the carved stones.

Swami refuted Congress president Sonia Gandhi's charge that the government had yielded to Paramhans's demand by sending Shatrughan Singh to help complete the ceremony.

"Singh was the commissioner of Faizabad sometime back and he had excellent relations with the sants. So when Ramchandra Das asked that someone from the PMO should receive the shila, the best person to do the job was Singh," he said.

"The trouble is that the opposition is now getting frustrated because a volatile situation has been defused successfully by the government," he added.

The minister also did not agree with the VHP's claim that the acceptance of the shila amounted to conceding that the Ram temple should come up at the disputed site.

"This is their claim. The government has not said anything on that count," he said.

The Ayodhya Issue: Complete Coverage

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