Hyderabad: One day, a calendar of Lord Hanuman was put up by the owner of a woolen store at the Lothkunta railway over-bridge, close to where his shop stood. A while later, as if to give protection to the lord from the elements, a small shed came up. A little later, it turned into a concrete structure.
The other day, the structure was demolished for widening of the road. In the rubble, days later, a religious flag sprang up as part of a protest against the plan to usurp the land for the 120feet road widening. However, camouflaged in religious fervour, it is said, are the commercial interests of the shop owner. A wide area around the flag has been barricaded by him. All this, curiously, on the railway property in the Cantonment area.
A local resident explained, “Ten years ago, there was nothing there. Then came the Hanuman picture. That formed as the excuse for a temple. After the calendar was placed, regular pujas started.”
“That’s when people started flocking there. A 60 by 30 ft concrete structure with an iron-grilled door was the first ‘temple’ built on this railway land. Every Tuesday, pujas were conducted,” he said.
“When the Sanath Nagar– Moulai MMTS was taken up, a double-lane road was sanctioned and the cement structure removed. No one protested against this. Then the idol was reinstalled in a small iron shed. During Hanuman Jayanti this year, a flag was installed next to the road. Now the space has been barricaded and there are plans to build another cement structure,” he added.
Notably, on the same road, a 120-ft road-widening project has been under negotiation with the Army for decades. A South Central Railway personnel said the matter will be looked into.
