E-Paper
New move in Meerut: ‘Namazis’ themselves ensure smooth traffic flow during Friday prayers
To ensure smooth flow of traffic on the roads around the city mosques namazis placed ropes along the roads and offered prayers inside the demarcated line (rope), thus not affecting traffic flow at all.
MEERUT Namazis (devouts) of the city took it upon themselves on Friday to ensure smooth flow of traffic on the roads around the city mosques by placing ropes along the roads and offering prayers inside the demarcated line (rope), thus not affecting traffic flow at all.
Those who could not be accommodated on the ground floor of the mosques, offered prayers on their roofs but did not encroach upon the roads, Nayab shahr kazi (chief cleric of the city) Zainur Rasheedin said.
This was the scene outside the Imliyan and Dariyaganj mosques in Meerut, the former being situated on the busy Hapur road.
Earlier, the namazis used to encroach upon the road in front of the mosques every Friday to offer prayers because of their large number and caused traffic bottlenecks.
SP (city) Akhilesh Narayan Singh appreciated the co-operation of Muslim religious leaders and people who offered namaz. “They were very cooperative and followed the instructions,” he said.
The nayab shahr kazi said that “several rounds of discussions were held with mosque officials, who agreed to ensure compliance of the SSP’s instructions and made their own arrangements to execute it.”
Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Ajay Kumar Sahni had issued instructions to officials of Imliyan and Dariyaganj mosques to ensure that the devout do not encroach upon the roads while offering prayers on Friday.
Inspector general (IG) of Meerut range Alok Singh had earlier issued instructions to SSPs of six districts of the range to ensure that the Friday prayers did not affect smooth flow of traffic.
Police force and traffic constables were also deployed around the mosques during prayer time but the devout themselves made the arrangement to ensure that no hindrance was caused to traffic movement during prayer time.
Meanwhile, the SSP has banned sacrifice of camels in the wake of orders of Animals Board of India and also appealed to people to not even exhibit a decorated camel on the road on the day of Eid.
