The News Craving
The Newscraving Desk
Srinagar, December 4: The closure of the grand mosque of Charar-I-Sharief has forced the Jammu and Kashmir Wakf Board to spent whopping sums of money on the arrangements for prayers in the town.
According to sources during the recent Urs at the shrine of Shiekh Nurdin Wali (RA) which lies adjacent to the mosque, the Wakf Board was forced to spent over Rs 8 lakh on the arrangements for prayers in the month of October. Sources said that in view of the closure of two-stories of the mosque tents had to pitched on the lawn and overall arrangements for prayers costed the Wakf Board over Rs 8 lakh.
Even as the Wakf Board has not been handed over the mosque by the JKPCC, the construction of which began after the 1995 episode of fire incident during which the entire town was gutted in firefights between the militants and the security forces, officials said that closure of its two stories was depriving thousands from performing religious duties. Sources further said that the mosque has a capacity of over 14,000, but as of now not more than 3,000 people are offering prayers in the ground floor only.
“ The Wakf board money should have been ideally used for the poor, but we are forced to spent this money on the prayer arrangements,” sources added.
According to sources due to the closure of the mosque for over two-years the construction activities have also got stalled there. “ We don’t have proper electricity supply lines. The electric wires hang loose and the dome of the mosque also remains incomplete,” sources said.
The Wakf Board has approached the Lieutenant Governor (LG), Manoj Sinha, seeking a CBI probe in the “multi-crore scandal” in the construction of the grand mosque during the National Conference (NC) regime. Local residents have alleged that substandard material was used for its construction.
The Wakf Board chairperson, Dr Darakshan Andrabi, has taken up the matter with LG, Manoj Sinha.
Tehsildar Wakf Board, Ishtiyaq Ahmad, earlier said that the matter has been taken up with the LG by Andrabi. In its latest report the National Institute of Technology has said that the beams of the mosque were weak and it needed massive strengthening to check vibrations.