‘Keep religion private’: Why an elite Noida neighbourhood is opposing a government-allotted temple
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On Sunday, scores of Noida residents gathered in a park to protest against the Uttar Pradesh government’s move to allot a part of the park for the construction of a temple.
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While the allotment process is still at a preliminary stage, residents worry that dozens of trees will be felled and daily life in the neighbourhood will be disrupted if a temple were to come up there. Sixty of them have even petitioned the Allahabad High Court, demanding that the Noida Authority notification about the allotment be quashed and the park be protected “in general public interest”.
The plot in question is a little over 300 square metres and is roughly valued at Rs 2.8 crores. It is part of the Vrindavan Park located in Sector 15A of Noida, Uttar Pradesh, a satellite town east of Delhi.
The posh locality is home to many retired bureaucrats, jurists and academics. On Sunday, some of them came out wearing t-shirts that bore a message: “Let the parks be.” They sang devotional songs, hugged trees, posed for pictures and picnicked with their neighbours – all under the watch of police officers standing at one of the entrances.
Nakul, a 38-year-old businessman who has lived in Sector 15A for over two decades, made it...