‘MAINTAINING SOCIAL HARMONY IS A OUR RESPONSIBILITY’

MISSION FOR MILLENNIUM CITY Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar shares govt’s plans for Gurugram and his thoughts over the namaz controversy

Haryana chief minister on Thursday said maintaining social harmony was the responsibility of the government. In an interview to HT, Khattar said: “There is an influx of people from outside the state. With numbers going up, places of worship have to be increased. Offering namaz on roads is not appropriate.”

Gurugram has been known to be a place without religious tensions. Over the last one month, this has got spoilt over the namaz issue. What are your thoughts on that?

Maintaining social harmony is our responsibility. There is an influx of people from outside the state, outside the district. People say many Bangladeshi Muslims have also come, though there is no survey on it.

The central government has to do a survey on it. With numbers increasing, places of worship have to be increased. Such things will happen if the places of worship are not increased. So we said that everyone should offer namaz in mosques and idgahs. Others can offer it at private places. It should not be offered in public places. It’s alright till no one objects. But if someone does, we will have to check it. Because law and order situation has to be maintained.

Offering namaz on roads is not appropriate. I have given this statement and also received a good response. People in the society have said that is right. We have stopped it at some places where it used to happen and people have found it convenient. Administration has earmarked 37 places after speaking with all groups. Right now, no one has a problem with namaz being offered at these 37 public places.

If tomorrow there is a problem at any place, including these 37, we will again see what needs to be done.

We have said, build mosques and idgahs. Otherwise, namaz can be done at home.

The growth in Gurugram has been dramatic over the last two decades. But has the city suffered from a lack of planning?

Planning is more effective when it is done at the concept stage. I think there may have been some shortcomings in planning at that time. But despite those shortcomings, the city expanded and it expanded in a way that the planners might not have expected. But today, because of its proximity to Delhi and the international airport and with increase in the scope of development in India, people have started coming to Gurugram.

Offices of more than 200 of the Fortune 500 companies are located in Gurugram. I don’t think any other city in India can boast of this.

When so much development happened, shortcomings started becoming visible. We have started working on it at full speed. For instance, underpasses at National Highway 8 were proposed, planned and started. Consequently, the traffic situation at Rajiv Gandhi Chowk and Signature Tower has improved.

I have recently inaugurated the Hero Honda flyover and the flyover at Manesar. The work at IFFCO Chowk is almost complete.

But there’s still work to be done. We want to expand the Metro further, especially to Old Gurugram. The planning is on and mapping is being done. We want to connect Dwarka Sector 21 with the Metro so that west Delhi gets integrated with Gurugram.

Air pollution is a big problem in Gurugram. The effect of stubble burning in Haryana and Punjab is seen till Delhi. What is being done to prevent it?

It’s a wrong perception that stubble burning causes pollution in Delhi to rise. Stubble burning should not happen. Even NGT (National Green Tribunal) has said that this is not the case. There are so many other reasons such as building construction work, industrial smoke, vehicular emissions.

Its impact is felt more at night. Trucks go blaring horns with no norms in place. The permanent solution to it is the eastern and western peripheral highway, which is also called KMP. Once ready, major traffic will be diverted.

Is there a time frame for procuring 500 buses and expansion of metro?

Like I said, 200 buses will start from August 15. The rest will come in phases. Planning on Metro is on. Once it is done, construction takes up to two years.