Poor measures put off devout at Urs fete

Balapur: Devotees blamed Telangana State Wakf Board (TSWB) for the poor arrangements at the 2-day annual Urs at Dargah-e-Hazrath Syed Imam Ali Shah Quadri in Balapur, which concluded on Sunday.

A devotee, Mohammed Jameeluddin who has been attending the Urs celebration for decades, said that since the Dargah was under the caretaker (Mutawalli) the arrangements of the annual Urs were on a grand note. However, in the recent years, after the TS Wakf Board took it under its control, it failed to organise the event properly. "As per the Wakf Act and Court order, the TSWB has the responsibility to arrange the Urs celebrations for two days. This was nothing but its failure for not making proper arrangements for devout. Moreover, none of the officials was present during the Urs celebrations," he said.

According to devotees, the officials had made arrangements for food only on the first day. They failed to arrange the same the next day, when hundreds of devotees and some of them from different districts of Telangana attended the Urs celebrations . Even on first day apart from the food, no other facility has been provided from TSWB. "A small tent was installed and no facility of washrooms and wazukhana for devotees was there. Even for this annual event, the dargah was not spruced up and no painting whatsoever was done", they said.

Earlier, the devotees with the help of caretaker used to cook and distribute food. But this year, the police stopped them from cooking on the Dargah premises and asked them to take permission from TSWB, who failed to cooperate. Instead, they cooked food outside the premises on main road and served the devotees on road.

Devotees requested TSWB Chairman Mohammed Saleem and CEO MA Hameed that from the next year annual celebrations, the TSWB should hand over the responsibility of the arrangements to the Dargah's caretaker.