In Meerut, Muslim family hands over temple land ownership papers to mgmt committee

A Muslim family of the city set an example of communal harmony on Diwali day when they handed over ownership papers of a piece of land, on which a Shiva temple is

A Muslim family of the city set an example of communal harmony on Diwali day when they handed over ownership papers of a piece of land, on which a Shiva temple is built, to the temple’s management committee.

The temple management committee members felicitating the Ali family.

According to the family members, in 1976 their grandfather had verbally donated the land in the city’s Indira Nagar locality for the temple.

The temple was constructed on this donated land almost 25 years ago but land was still in the name of late Kasim Ali of Shakoor Nagar here.

Meanwhile, a group of local residents tried to take control of the temple as there was no management committee to take care of it. Another group of local residents, led by Sumit Kumar Sharma, opposed them and formed a committee of 11 members for management of the temple. “We submitted all required documents in the registrar’s office almost a month ago for registration of the committee,” said Sharma, president of the committee.

They then came to know that Kasim Ali had verbally donated the land for the temple and the committee members approached Ali’s family last week with a request to hand over the papers of the land. Kasim Ali’s sons Hazi Asim, Sajid and Sabir assured them of handing over the documents of the land soon.

Kashif Ali, son of Sajid and a TV artiste in Mumbai, said his family got the papers of the land prepared and handed them over to the committee on Diwali day.

Showing their gratitude towards the Ali family, members and officials of the temple committee and local residents felicitated the three brothers and Kashif Ali inside on temple premises on Monday and expressed their gratitude to them for honoring the will of their grandfather. “They set an example of communal harmony by their gesture,” said Sharma

Kashif said: “We believe that people should respect each other’s religion and spread the message of harmony and brotherhood.”