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VHP mounts pressure on govt to transfer Faizabad officials

Shahid K Abbas in New Delhi

The Union home ministry and the Uttar Pradesh governor Vishnu Kant Shastri are caught in bind following mounting pressure from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to transfer Faizabad Divisional Commissioner Anil Kumar Gupta and District Magistrate B P Misra for being too harsh on the karsevaks

VHP international working president Ashok Singhal's decision to sit on an indefinite fast, from Sunday, at Karsevakpuram at Ayodhya to press his demand for providing security to karsevaks has compounded Shastri's problems further.

Home ministry sources said that the state governor is also in constant touch with the Union Home Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani, seeking the latter's directives as to what should be done about the increasing pressure from the VHP.

"The VHP has not asked for the removal of the two officers, 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.

Ram Janambhoomi Nyas president Ramchandra Das Paramhans had sparked a row when he openly expressed his unwillingness to hand over the shilas to Gupta under the pretext that the commissioner was a bania.

Paramhan's stance was apparently prompted by Gupta's initial refusal to receive the shilas in his capacity as the official custodian of 67.7 acres of acquired land, apprehending that such a step may result in contempt of the Supreme Court's order to maintain status quo in the acquired land.

Gupta's refusal had forced the Centre to rush Shatrughan Singh, a former Faizabad commissioner and currently in-charge of the Ayodhya Cell in the Prime Minister's Office, to receive the carved stone-pillars.

The Union government, which has to get the resolution on proclamation of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh passed soon in both the Houses of Parliament, would be hard-pressed to explain its position if it gives in to the VHP pressure and transfers the Faizabad commissioner and the district magistrate.

Meanwhile, the Faizabad commissioner is understood to have applied for a long leave.

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