Author: Sunando Sarkar and Bappa
Majumdar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: April 18, 2003
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1030418/asp/bengal/story_1885166.asp
Wall up. Go slow. Lie low. Wall
up. That is precisely how work is in progress on the 15-foot-high boundary
wall around the masjid complex adjoining Dum Dum airport
Caught in a controversy over its
plans to take over the complex, the Airports Authority of India has decided
to "go slow". Days into the construction of the wall (on undisputed land),
the authorities have decided to "lie low for some time before taking up
the work again".
The wall will initially block off
the masjid-graveyard-mazhar plot from the vision of passersby and, ultimately,
surround the entire plot.
Officials said the "wait-and-do"
policy was a result of reports of simmering anger against the walling-up
plans. The wall - now ending suddenly, a few feet from a mazhar on the
disputed plot - had fired "immense suspicion and apprehension" within the
community. Work would start "later" after "things cooled down", the officials
said.
The airports authority wants to
take up the Mathpara Burra Masjid, two adjoining mazhars and a graveyard,
right outside the airport boundary - to build a cargo-handling unit and
an air-conditioning plant.
In a joint drive with the North
24-Parganas administration last month, the airport authorities made an
attempt to take over the plot but retreated after being confronted with
documents that "showed" the land belonged to the masjid committee.
The community in the area and the
committee that maintains the complex is viewing the construction of the
wall in this context. The 15-foot wall has already moved towards the masjid
plot by more than 250 feet from the edge of Jessore Road. Sand- and earth-
filling work on the adjoining - and undisputed - plot has also been completed.
Materials for further construction are at hand, waiting to be used.
"No one would have apprehended anything
had the attempt to take over the masjid not occurred last month," said
masjid committee joint secretary Ramzan Ali Mandal. "But, in the present
context, it (the wall) appears to be anything but a ploy to inch closer
and closer towards our plot," he added.
"We are watching the events with
a lot of apprehension," said committee member Munna Sapui. "This could
be a part of the authorities' pressure tactics." The members of the masjid
committee are taking turns to keep an eye on the "activities" around the
plot, he added.
Airport director J. Kongari dismissed
talk of "pressure tactics". "The wall was part of our original programme
and we intend to go ahead with our plans for an air-conditioning plant
and cargo-handling unit," he said. "But we intend to keep the local sentiments
in mind while going about our work," he added.
Airports authority officials disclosed
that engineers in the construction wing would be "asked to go slow on the
project".
A meeting of the authority brass
was on the cards to chalk out the next phase of plans, they said. "Care"
would have to be taken during the next round of work, they added.
