Bulandshahr (Uttar Pradesh) : A 32-year old temple has been discovered in the Bulandshahr district of the Uttar Pradesh, The Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Khurja area said on Sunday.
The Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Durgesh Singh has said that the temple in the Salma Hakan mohalla was used by the Jatav community 30 years ago, and when the community shifted, they took the temple's idol with them, and did an idol immersion in a river.
"It is being said that there was a madir there but around 32 years ago it was removed, that is not the case. The Jatav community were using that temple before but when that community shifted it was said that the community took the temple idol with them, they did a visarjan (idol immersion) in a nearby river," Khurja Sub-Divisional Magistrate Singh told news agency.
He said that contrary to reports claiming as such, there is no dispute between Hindus and Muslims regarding the land and the temple. "So I want to clarify that there is no dispute between any community regarding this. There is this area Salma Hakan, there are a lot of reports coming out that there is a dispute on the land between the communities, I want to make it clear that there is no such dispute on that between the Muslim and Hindu community," Singh told news agency.
Meanwhile, locals in the area said there has been regular cleaning of the place. They said that when the Jatav community left the mohalla then they said to make a common area for the people of the community and clean up the place so people do not get troubled by it.
"They said, to make a place here to make life easier for people in the mohallas, make a gate, clean up the place. There is a neighbour of mine, Aslam, who many times rakes leaves from here whenever it gets piled up. Many times he has done cleaning of the area too. Before we thought that we should put a gate, but others said that one can capture the place, so we did not do anything to this place. This place is the same since it was emptied," one of the residents told news agency.
"It has been around 20-25 years since I have been staying here, when I came here there were around 2-4 Jatav houses here. So eventually they sold their houses and went away from the area. They were good people, and when they left they said that they are taking the temple idols from here," he said.
Aslam, who cleans the temple land regularly told ANI that he just wishes to keep the area clean.
"As far as I know Jatav community lived here...around 20-30 years ago they left. Now no one from that community stays here. We do regular cleaning here. We have no problems with the temple, we just make sure to keep the place clean, then everything else is upto the authorities. I hope a gate can be put here and the place is kept clean," Aslam said.