Pakistan Government to Renovate Krishna Temple in Lahore

October 6, 2004

LAHORE, PAKISTAN, September 30, 2004: Lahore's famous Krishna Mandir is

getting set for a makeover with Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali

around the corner. According to the Daily Times, the Evacuee Trust

Property Board (ETPB) of Pakistan has announced plans to spend

US$21,000 on the temple's renovation next month. Faraz Abbas, the

administrator of the ETPB, was quoted as saying that the temple and

other Hindu edifices had been badly damaged in communal clashes in the

aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in December

1992. Now a thought was being given to renovate them as Hindus had been

demanding a proper place for worship and prayer, he added. Abbas

claimed that it had renovated the temple several times after partition

and a number of proposals had been sent to the higher authorities for

the renovation of other temples for the minorities in the province.

The Evacuee Trust Property Board is a government body of the minorities

affairs ministry that is supposed to look after properties abandoned by

fleeing Sikhs and Hindus when the Indian sub-continent was partitioned in

1947.

5. US$340,000 Crown For Lord Venkateswara

ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA, September 30, 2004: Kanchi Sankaracharya

Jayendra Saraswathi will present a 11.5-kg gold crown to the hill

shrine of Lord Venkateswara on Thursday. The Sankaracharya and his

junior acharya, Vijendra Saraswathi, will hand over the crown, worth

about US$340,000, to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajasekhara

Reddy in the temple. Temple sources said the Deity would be adorned

with the crown, studded with diamonds and other precious stones, after

an abhishekam [ceremonial bath].

Recommended Posts