Ayodhya civic body's footwear headache: Why devotees are leaving Ram temple barefoot

Ayodhya Ram temple file photo (PTI)

Nearly 30 trollies of shoes and sandals have been cleared by the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation from outside the Ayodhya Ram Mandir recently.

According to the municipal corporation, the abandoned footwear are being collected daily from the entry gate of the temple using JCB machines which are then loaded onto trolleys and taken away to be dumped at a spot 4-5 km away.

According to a report, the huge pile of dumped footwear at the Ram temple is a result of a change in the crowd management measures in place for devotees.

Usually, the devotees are asked to deposit their footwear at Gate 1 of the temple, the primary entrance situated on Ram Path. After completing a circular route of roughly half a kilometre inside the temple premises, people make their way to the same gate to collect the footwear.

However, to manage the huge influx of devotees, the temple administration has been redirecting the visitors to exit via Gate 3 and other gates (around 5-6 kms away from Gate 1). Thus, instead of walking 5-6 kms to retrieve their shoes, most of the devotees just abandon the footwear and leave the temple barefoot, officials informed.

"Changes have been made in the arrangements for the past 30 days to ensure that the unexpected crowd of devotees can have easy access to the darshan without chaos," Anil Mishra, a trustee of the Ram temple trust, said, quoted TOI.

Since the beginning of the Maha kumbh, a huge influx of devotees has been arriving in Ayodhya. More than 1.25 crore devotees visited the Ram temple in Ayodhya during 45 days of Maha Kumbh. The influx of devotees began on Makar Sankranti and continued unabated until Maha Shivratri.