Idgah Maidan row: Mixed response to Chamarajpet bandh

Bengaluru: The bandh called by the citizens forum and other organisations in the city's Chamarajpet, demanding that the 2.10-acre 'Idgah Maidan' as a property of the civic body and that it be declared a playground, evoked a mixed response on Tuesday.

Most of the shops surrounding Idgah Maidan remained closed, except for a few ones like those involved in medical and other emergency services. Closed shops had a sticker supporting the bandh on their doors or shutters.

However, shops and establishments in Chamarajpet, beyond the close vicinity of the Idgah Maidan by and large functioned as usual and vehicular traffic remained unaffected.

Many schools and educational institutions in the vicinity were shut.

There was heavy deployment of police in the area to prevent any untoward incidents. Police intervened when some people tried to forcibly shut shops.

The 'Chamarajpet Bandh' was called by 'Chamarajpet Nagareekara Okkuta Vedike' demanding that the Idgah Maidan be declared as the property of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and not go to the Karnataka State Board of Wakf.

They are also demanding that the Idgah Maidan be declared a playground, allowing celebration of Hindu and national festivals there and that it be renamed after Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, the last Maharaja of Mysuru.

Recently, the BBMP initially claimed the ownership of the Idgah Maidan, but subsequently made a U-turn, stating that the property did not belong to it. It has stated that the ambiguity over the ownership was due to city survey records of 1974.

"While the Supreme Court dismissed our claim over the property in 1964, city survey records from later years show the BBMP as the holder of the land...however, BBMP does not have ownership over the property," BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath had recently said.The initial claim of BBMP over the property was challenged by the Muslim bodies stating that Idgah was a gazetted wakf property.