Ayodhya Ram Temple trust to have 15 trustees, one to be Dalit

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has given its nod to set up a trust for the construction of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra will have 15 trustees and one of them will be from the Dalit community.
Soon after the meeting of the Union Cabinet ended, Modi reached Lok Sabha to make a statement in this regard.

Just before the Question Hour began, he said the trust has been named as the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Shetra.

Prime Minister also said the entire land along with the Ramjanmabhoomi which includes 67.77 acres in Ayodhya has also been given to the Trust.

Prime Minister said as per the Supreme Court order, 5 acre land will be given to the Sunni Waqf Board for construction of a mosque.

He said the Uttar Pradesh government will provide the land to the Muslims.

Making a statement in the lower house soon after the meeting of the Union Cabinet, Modi said, "We have readied a scheme for the development of Ram Temple in Ayodhya. A trust has been formed, it is called 'Shri Ram Janambhoomi Teertha Kshetra."

Since Parliament is in session, the government decided to inform the House on the important decision taken by the Cabinet.
The prime minister said that after the verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue came out, the people of India displayed remarkable faith in democratic processes and procedures.

"I salute the 130 crore people of India," he said. "Let us all support construction of a grand Ram Temple in Ayodhya," he said, amid "Jai Shri Ram" slogans from treasury benches.

Amit Shah's statement on the trustees came a little over an hour after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Lok Sabha about the constitution of the trust.

"There will be 15 trustees in the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra Trust out of which one trustee will always be from the Dalit society," he tweeted.

Shah congratulated Modi "for such an unprecedented decision" that strengthens social harmony.

The home minister said the trust will be independent to take every decision related to the temple and 67 acres of land will be transferred to it.

The Supreme Court had directed the government to form the trust within three months and the deadline was ending on February 9.
In a historic and unanimous verdict in last November, a five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi cleared the way for the construction of a Ram temple at the 2.77-acre disputed site in Ayodhya, and directed the Centre to allot a five-acre plot at a "prominent" location to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque.