Lucknow, October 13: Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary Sarvesh Chandra Mishra, who signed the controversial letter on rebuilding Ram Temple at Ayodhya was suspended by the state government on Sunday. The decision came a day after the controversial IAS officer was transferred for writing the letter.
Mishra was transferred from Home Department on Saturday and put on waiting over a controversial letter convening a meeting to discuss ‘reconstruction of Ram Temple in Ayodhya on lines of Somnath Temple.
The communique of the UP government had created a flutter in the state, even triggered speculations in political circles.
The communique issued by Mishra, then secretary to the state government, instructed the DGP and other senior police officers to attend a meeting convened on Monday evening in connection with the “enactment of a law in Parliament for construction of a temple at Shri Ramjanmabhoomi on the lines of the reconstruction of Somnath Mandir”.
Going by the people called for the meeting, all of them police officers with the exceptions of principal secretary (home) R.M. Srivastava and the district magistrate of Faizabad whose jurisdiction includes Ayodhya, the purpose of the exercise seemed, on the face of it, to be related to maintenance of law and order.
Following the massive controversy after the letter, a red-faced SP government had termed it an ‘error’ and promised action against the guilty.
Even, Principal Secretary (Home) R.M. Srivastava had to apologise for the “error” and take responsibility for the folly of ‘junior level’ officials.
“There are errors in the letter issued on October 9 by the department for convening the meeting and parts of intelligence input on the VHP sponsored Sankalp Diwas on October 18, which should not have been made public, got mentioned in it,” Srivastava had said at a press meet. “The language used in the letter is not correct,” he had said.
