Notice served to Lord Hanuman to vacate temple in MP

Bhind (MP), Jun 9: While issuing notices to the people who encroach on public land is a common practice for government authorities, officials in Bhind district of Madhya Pradesh have gone to the extent of slapping a notice on Lord Hanuman!

The Bhind Municipality has pasted a notice on the door of Hanuman temple at Chhoti bazaria area, in which it has asked the deity to clear the place in a week as the religious structure has encroached on public space.

The civic authorities are, however, now calling it a "blunder" with a notice being served to the officer concerned to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

In the notice, addressed to Lord Hanuman, instead of the temple priest or the trust, the deity has been asked to clear 8 x 10 feet encroachment area along with the debris in a week's time.

Else, the notice said, the municipality will flatten the area and also recover the money incurred on clearing the debris thereafter.

Bhind municipality anti-encroachment drive in-charge Dhiresh Tiwari told PTI that the notice was served addressing Lord Hanuman "by mistake", as a large number of notices were served to illegal encroachers.

Chief Municipality Officer (CMO) R S Chari on the other hand blamed Tiwari for the blunder and served him a notice to inquire into the matter.

The CMO's action came after angry devotees petitioned him against the notice pasted at the door of the temple on June 5.

Chari, however, tried to downplay the civic body's action, saying there were a total of 218 notices served to clear the area from Gol Market to Kila Road of encroachments.

Notably, Bhind Municipality has initiated steps to clear the town of encroachments following a PIL moved in the Madhya Pradesh High Court's bench in Gwalior on this issue.

PTI