Telangana to lay foundation stone for Masjid in new Secretariat complex on Feb 26
Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has agreed in principle to lay the foundation stone for the masjid on February 26 in place of the two masjids that were brought down during the demolition of the old Secretariat complex in July last year.
This followed a meeting of public representatives, representatives of community organisations and religious scholars that was convened by minorities welfare minister Koppula Eshwar on Wednesday.
AIMIM MLA Ahmed Balala submitted a detailed plan of the proposed masjid which was prepared by engineers as per instructions issued by MIM Assembly floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had entrusted the task to Akbaruddin Owaisi to prepare a plan.
One of the participants at the meeting said home minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, who along with Eshwar led the meeting, tried to convince the participants not to insist on laying the foundation stone immediately as debris was still not removed completely from the premises and the boundary wall of was yet to be constructed.
However, Balala emphasised that the date needs to be fixed as there was increasing discontent in the community over the delay in reconstruction of the masjid. He said. “We stated that the work should start without further delay as the new masjid has been excluded from the new boundary of the Secretariat and there is no restriction in Islam to choose an astrologically appropriate time for starting the work.”
Balala said that if the government is facing any difficulty in finding engineers or contractors for construction or any financial crises, “our party is ready to provide engineers/contractors and bear the expenditures.”
He said that ministers Eshwar and Talasani Srinivas Yadav had clarified that the Chief Minister wanted to fulfil his promise as early as possible and said there is no hurdle from the government side. The meeting then decided that the foundation stone will be laid on February 26.
The Chief Minister had visited the Secretariat site on Tuesday to inspect the works. Last Sunday, a joint action committee had held a ‘Chalo Secretariat’ protest demanding the reconstruction of the masjid as promised by the Chief Minister.
