Ayodhya mosque faces 'procedural delays

The project of construction of a mosque at Dhannipur village, for which land had been allotted by the state government following Supreme Court orders in the Ayodhya title dispute case, has been stuck due to non-change of land use by the authorities concerned.

According to the office-bearers of the trust set up for the project, an estimated Rs 300 crore will be spent on the project, which will be completed in three phases.

The trust office-bearer said it was a procedural delay, not a deliberate one.

The Ayodhya Development Authority (ADA) is yet to pass the map of the Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah Mosque even a year and a half after the application was submitted, the office-bearers said.

After the Supreme Court verdict in the Ayodhya title case, the state government gave five acres of land in Ayodhya district's Dhannipur village to the Sunni Waqf Board for construction of a mosque.

The Waqf Board had handed over the land to the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust for construction of the mosque spread over 3,500 square metres, besides a four-storey super specialty charity hospital and community kitchen measuring 24,150 square metres, a 500-square metre museum and a 2,300 square metre Indo-Islamic Research Centre.

After naming the entire project as Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah Yojana, the trust had applied online in May 2021 to get its map passed by the Ayodhya Development Authority.

"No action is pending from the authority level on the entire matter. Whatever action has to be taken now, it will be done from the government level," said ADA vice-chairman Vishal Singh.

Athar Hussain, secretary of the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust said, "It's not a deliberate delay but a procedural delay, nothing because of authority officials. Because it is agricultural land, there are certain conditions to be met before land use changes.

"We understand the procedural delay. But there are certain elements who want to take advantage of the situation and create a rift in the society. Our effort from the beginning was to end conflict so there should be no blame game over the delay in land use change. Those who do not understand the process should not speak on the matter."

He further said, "No comparisons should be drawn with the project for the temple construction."

"The mosque will come up on the land, once the land use is changed and the map is passed by the authority. It will take just a year for the mosque to come up. We do not want any conflict due to delay in land use change as the delay is due to the procedure. I can only say that as soon as the map is passed by the authority, the construction will start," he added.