Russian authorities have finally allocated land for the construction of a Krishna temple in a northern suburb of Moscow, after many years of petitioning from the ISKCON and Hindu communities.
On October 20th, Moscow's acting mayor Vladimir Resin signed the government order allocating the 5 acre plot—on the Novoskhodnenskoye Highway in Vereskino village—to ISKCON Moscow for building the temple.
According to the agreement, ISKCON is to finalise the project and obtain permission for construction within the year 2011. Construction is to begin by December 31st 2012.
Moscow devotees first applied for permission to build a Vedic Temple and Cultural Center in the capital back in 1991, which former Mayor Yury Luzhkov approved and allotted land for in 1994.
“But although the project passed all the necessary endorsements, Mayor Luzhkov refused to sign the document, without giving any explanation,” says ISKCON Moscow's Communications Director Yadunandana Dasa.
Over the next decade, devotees executed many charity activities from their small temple near the Begovaya metro station, organizing programs for providing hot nutritious meals to socially unprotected Muscovites, victims of conflicts in Chechnya, Abkhazia, Ingushetia and Dagestan, and victims of the Sakhalin earthquake. Alongside their efforts they continued to apply for building a permanent major temple in Moscow.
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