MCG seals mosque near Airforce ammunition depot
The structure is about 300 metres from the Airforce facility, which makes it illegal
GURUGRAM: Tension prevailed in Gurugram’s Sheetla colony on Wednesday after sealing of a mosque by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG). Tension started last week after certain members protested that an illegal structure was allowed to function as a religious structure. In their defence, the other side is claiming that the mosque is legal.
The civic body, which initiated the action despite protest, said the structure is within a range of 300 metres from the Airforce ammunition depot which makes it illegal. It must be noted that citing security reasons, the Punjab and Haryana high court has ruled that all residential and commercial structures in the range of 300 metres of the Airforce depot should be removed. Along with the mosque, the MCG has stated that ten more structures in the area were sealed. The step taken by the municipal body has not gone well with the certain religious bodies who have claimed that this move was taken under the pressure of the domineering religious outfits. This is the second time when confrontation due to religious matter has been reported from Gurugram. Earlier in June, the worshippers from a community were prevented from praying namaz on a vacant land.
A huge controversy was generated over the functioning of the mosque by the certain outfits that have prolonged for more than a week. Earlier, the protests were made against
loudspeakers being used in the mosque. However, it was
later revealed that the members were demanding the closure of the religious structure claiming it to be illegal. Subsequently, the Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) intervened in the matter and tried to reconcile the differences between both the parties.
After the matter genertaed a lot of controversy, the district administration along with the Gurugram police earmarked 37 places for the members to offer the prayers. Even though there have been small incidents of protest no major hue and cry has occurred ever since even though the displeasure of earmarking the public lands has been expressed.
Amid the controversy, the issue of encroachments of the prime property has again gained traction. While one religious outfit has alleged that this is a ploy to illegally capture the land, it has been denied by the Muslim devotees. In the past, there have been instances where religious structures have been built to encroach upon the prime land.
Most of the fringe outfits have termed the move of encroachment as “land jihad”. The controversial situation again highlights the issue of rising aggressive fringe elements in Gurugram. In the past, various issues like selling beef Biryani on the streets of Mewat, illegal trade of cattle to even stopping the screening of a film have been witnessed in the city. There have also been various programmes that have been launched to check the population of migrant labours.