Reviving the lost beauty, more than 50,000 temples will be surveyed to be restored in Kashmir Valley

Srinagar, September 23: Opening new avenues to initiate development, Jammu and Kashmir has seen a new dawn of hopes, beliefs and growth. Reviving the lost beauty, the Central government has ordered a survey of temples in Jammu and Kashmir to find out how many of them have been destroyed, defaced or are closed. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Monday said that this order is in a bid to restore the religious structures.

 

The significance of the statement asserted by Kishan Reddy comes into being as the minister has suggested that more than 50,000 temples needed to be reviewed by the government for restoration in the valley. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Reddy said that closed or destroyed structures including schools, temples, and cinema theatres in the Valley will be reviewed by a committee under Ministry of Home Affairs for their restoration.

Asserting that elections will be held once the situation returns to normalcy, Reddy said that the focus of the central government is on the development of the region. “Assembly elections will also be held as soon as things are normal...We have successfully done sarpanch elections, now we will conduct block development council elections by November or December and then we will conduct district development council election,” Reddy said.

He added, “There are no cinema theatres in the Valley, they have been shut for years, there are more than 50,000 temples that are closed, 90 per cent of them have been destroyed, these will be surveyed.”

Last week, Reddy made headlines after he claimed that Pakistan would be wiped out of the world map if at all it engages in a war with India. Addressing a "Jan Jagaran" rally over the abrogation of Article 370, Reddy said that if at all war happens then Pakistan will not remain on the map of the world.