Ayodhya verdict: Government extends ban on bulk SMSes, MMSes till Friday

NEW DELHI: With the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court set to announce its verdict in the Ayodhya title suit, the Central Government on Thursday extended the ban on bulk SMSes and MMSes till Friday.

"We have decided to extend the ban by a day in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs in the wake of the Ayodhya verdict," a senior DoT official said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology had issued orders to all mobile telecom service providers that all bulk SMS and MMS messages are banned in all service areas till September 30.

Meanwhile, in Uttar Pradesh, an alert has been sounded across the state. Security has been intensified at all vital installations in view of the verdict.

The Allahabad High Court has said that the judgement on the case will be available at its official websites.

The court has been turned into a virtual fortress and declared a no access zone.

Additional civil and police officers have been being deployed at sensitive places, including the Allahabad High Court and its Lucknow bench premises.

Administrations in all districts are directed to ensure that anti-social elements do not disturb the law and order situation.

The security of the three high court judges has been tightened. About 20 personnel of the PAC and five CRPF personnel have been deployed at the residence of all three judges.

They have been also provided an escort and pilot car and one PSO. A DSP rank officer has been made in charge of the judges' security.

About 25 districts of the state, including Agra, Allahabad, Aligarh, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Behraich, Bulandsahar, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Mau, Varanasi, Faizabad, Mathura, Bijnore, Muzaffarnagar and Lucknow have been identified as sensitive or hyper sensitive, and therefore, special security precautions have taken for these places.

On Wednesday, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram said the Centre has taken adequate measures and deployed enough security forces all over the country to assist state governments to maintain peace.

He said all the state governments have been advised to be firm and expressed the confidence that they will be able to maintain public order and peace.