Banke Bihari Temple Corridor at Vrindavan faces protests from traders

The proposed 'Banke Bihari Temple Corridor' at Vrindavan in Mathura has been facing large scale protests from local residents, priests and traders, who slammed the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh for what they alleged were attempts to destroy the religious and cultural identity of the place, which is visited by millions of devotees of Lord Krishna from across the world.

The traders, priests and residents who have homes and shops in the vicinity of the famous Temple, held a demonstration in the narrow lanes of the Vrindavan town carrying black banners decrying the state government's decision to construct the Corridor to 'decongest' and 'beautify' the place.

Shouting slogans against the local administration and the state government, the protesters held a meeting near the Temple and later handed over a memorandum to the local officials demanding scrapping of the proposed Corridor.

The traders also put up black banners atop their shops to register their protest and burnt the copies of the map of the proposed Corridor. ''The importance of Vrindavan is owing to its unique narrow lanes and culture...the government wants to destroy it...we will not allow that,'' said a local trader.

The leader said that as many as 108 letters written in 'blood' by the locals, including priests, had been sent to prime minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath urging them to scrap the project.

''It will ruin the traders and priests and also the residents.....we will further intensify our protests,'' said the leader.

Local Congress leader and former MLA Pradeep Mathur said that his party was also against the Corridor as it would render hundreds of families homeless.

The proposed Corridor, which would come up on five acres of land, would connect the Temple with Yamuna river and was aimed at decongesting the area.