Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav
Credit: PTI Photo
Indore: Places associated with Lord Krishna in the state will be developed as pilgrimage sites, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Saturday said here.
He was speaking at a public felicitation of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, president of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Kshetra Trust.
"We have decided that the places touched by Lord Krishna's feet in the state will be developed as pilgrimage sites," he said.
As per mythology, Janapav in Indore district, Sandipani Ashram and Narayana village in Ujjain and Amjhera in Dhar district were among places linked to the deity, the chief minister said.
Yadav also praised the "hard struggle" of Mahant Nritya Gopal Das in the Ram Mandir movement and said he dedicated his entire life to preserve the heritage of Sanatan culture.
The consecration of Ram temple was a wonderful moment and he will never forget the scene, he added.
"After 500 years of struggle, a temple could be built on Ram Janmabhoomi. Madhya Pradesh has a deeper connection with Ayodhya because it is said that Babar destroyed the 2,000-year-old Ram temple.....The demolished temple had been built by Vikramaditya, the emperor of the ancient city of Ujjain in the Malwa region of the state," Yadav said.
"Lord Ram is smiling in Ayodhya. Now we are eagerly waiting for Lord Krishna to smile in Mathura," he added, in an apparent reference to the Mathura temple-mosque dispute.
At another function, Yadav said his government was fast moving towards creating a metropolitan area by combining places of Indore, Ujjain, Dewas and Dhar districts, and the name of this area will be announced very soon.
Yadav, who is the guardian minister of Indore, also took cognisance of the waterlogging and traffic jams at major intersections after heavy rains on Friday in the city, and warned officials that such a situation should not recur.