Ram Mandir Pratishtha: The ceremony of Ramlala Pran Pratishtha was completed in Ayodhya on Monday (22 January 2014). The temple will also be opened for common devotees from January 23. After the Supreme Court’s decision in the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute in 2019, PM Modi announced the Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust on 5 February 2020 for the construction of the temple. Exactly six months later, on 5 August 2020, the foundation stone of the Ram temple was laid and now the temple is almost ready.
At the same time, the second Supreme Court had allotted 5 acres of land in Dhannipur village, about 25 km from Ayodhya, to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a mosque. After this, the foundation stone of the proposed mosque was laid on 26 January 2021. However, the construction work of the mosque has not started yet.
Questions raised on delay in construction of mosque
now that Ram Mandir Although it is almost ready, questions are being raised on the Indo Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) Trust regarding the delay in the construction of the mosque. This trust was formed by the Waqf Board and the work of building the mosque was entrusted to this trust.
There is a Dargah built on the land given for the proposed mosque, which was already present there before the land was allotted. At present, only the repair work of this Dargah has been done and there is a post on its wall, in which the picture of the mosque to be built there is printed.
Why was there a delay in building the mosque?
Regarding the delay in the construction of the mosque, Azam Qadri, Chairman of the UP Sunni Central Board Waqf Sub-Committee in Ayodhya, said in an interview to The Quint that there are two important reasons behind the delay in the construction of the mosque. The first was that the Ayodhya Development Authority was not approving the map.
Apart from this, the board was considering building a library on that land, but now it has been decided that a cancer hospital will be built next to the mosque and for this we need more land.
‘Lack of money’
In this regard, All India Milli Council member Khaliq Ahmed Khan told BBC that the trust could not collect as much money as expected, hence the work is getting delayed. He told that to speed up the work, he is changing the strategy of collecting money.
He said that as per Sharia law and Waqf Board rules, properties like mosques and graveyards can neither be sold, mortgaged nor gifted.
‘The board does not want to get involved in controversy’
According to Times of India, former Maharashtra Minority Commission Chairman Haji Arafat Shaikh said on the delay in the construction of the mosque that the government itself had allotted land for the mosque in Dhannipur, but the mosque committee wants to be assured that He should not get involved in any controversy in future.
For this, the board wants that before starting the construction of the mosque, the state government should give us a certificate stating that the ownership of the land is clear. He said the design of the project is being finalized and the proposal to the UP government for approval is also almost ready.
“We will open our construction office at the site in February this year and start the construction of the mosque after Ramadan in May,” he claimed.
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