Eid prayers were not held on roads in Uttar Pradesh for the first time, Adityanath says

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Sunday said that Eid prayers were not held on the roads for the first time in the state since the Bharatiya Janata Party retained power in the Assembly elections earlier this year, The Indian Express reported.

Adityanath made the remarks at an event organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to celebrate 75 years of its magazines, Organiser and Panchjanya.

“Ram Navami was celebrated in a grand manner in Uttar Pradesh,” Adityanath said during the event, ANI reported. “There was no violence anywhere in the state. For the first time in Uttar Pradesh, namaz [prayers] on Eid and on Alvida Juma [last Friday of Ramadan] has not been held on the road.”

He also said that loudspeakers at mosques have either been completely removed or their volume has been reduced, according to The Indian Express.

Adityanath was referring to the drive carried out by the Uttar Pradesh Police to remove unauthorised loudspeakers from places of worship and to ensure that authorised ones operate within the sound limit. As many as 45,773 have been removed and the volume of 58,861 loudspeakers lowered to the permissible limit till April 30, according to PTI.

“Now these loudspeakers are being donated to schools and hospitals for their use,” the chief minister said at the event.

He also spoke about stray cattle in the state and said that over 5,000 shelters have been set up to tackle the problem.

“You may remember that when our government came to power in the state, it shut down all illegal slaughterhouses,” Adityanath said. “But there was an adverse consequence of this that we had to bear – of stray cattle roaming on the roads and in the fields. Earlier, they were smuggled into illegal slaughterhouses. To meet this challenge, we set up over 5,600 shelters for stray cattle.”

Also read: Is Adityanath attempting a Modi-esque image makeover?

Other speakers

The RSS event was also attended by Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma amongst others.

During the event, Sawant said that his government has made a budgetary allocation for the renovation of temples destroyed by the Portuguese in Goa, The Indian Express reported.

“In the 450 years of Portuguese rule, there was the destruction of Hindu culture and many people were converted,” Sawant alleged. “Temples of the state were destroyed. We are going to rejuvenate all of them…I believe wherever there are temples in destroyed condition, they should be rebuilt.”

Dhami said that his government has decided to form a committee on Uniform Civil Code and make the anti-conversion law in the state “stronger”.

“The committee will have legal experts and stakeholders,” Dhami added. “We will implement the draft that the committee submits…We will implement the Uniform Civil Code for which we are making preparations and we want other states to follow suit.”

A uniform civil code involves having a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all Indians, instead of allowing different personal laws for people of different faiths.