Hyderabad: In spite of the tall claims of the Telangana Government for implementing Minority schemes, its Minority Welfare Department (MWD) utterly failed in the care and maintenance of minority religious place. The MWD is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the historic Makkah Masjid which includes paying salaries of the employees on time.
Chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao has allocated Rs.1500 crore to promote Yadadri Mandir in line with Tirupati where the renovation work is going on on war footing. The chief minister personally visited Bhongir 15 times to review the renovation work but he has not visited the Makkah Masjid even once.
The minority welfare minister K Eishwar seems not interested in the repairing and maintenance of Makkah Masjid and as a result, the officials of the department ignore issues related to the mosque.
It is an irony that in spite of Muslims occupying the posts of Secretary and Director in the MWD, the historic mosque is facing laxity. Leave alone the repairing work, the Imam of the mosque has not received his salaries for the past 16 months and the MWD officials failed to obtain approval in this regard from the finance department.
The mosque employees are given extensions every three years in their services. The file concerning the extension of Makah Masjid Imam Latif Ahmed has been sent two months prior to his extension deadline. But the finance department kept his file pending citing COVID-19 lockdown. It is regretful that the secretary and other officials of the MWD have failed to take up the issue with the finance department due to which the Imam’s extension file is still pending.
The Imam of Makkah Masjid is discharging his duties diligently for 16 months without getting his monthly salaries. The District Minority Welfare Officer has taken up this issue with the MWD officials a number of times with no result. Similarly, the superintendent of Makkah Masjid is continuously making written representation to the officials regarding the repairing works and the employees’ salaries.
Similarly, another Imam Hafiz Mohammed Usman has not got his monthly remuneration since April.
Muslims have no issue if the Chief Minister spends lavishly on Yadadri Mandir’s renovation but he had to allocate the amount needed for the repairing of the historic mosque which is not more than a couple of crores.
