Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The strong persuasion and efforts taken up by the Congress party has been paid off as the state government will be dedicating the Haj House (situated at Kile Ark) to the pilgrims on February 2.
The state’s Minority Development and Wakf minister Abdul Sattar will inaugurate the infrastructure at 3 pm on Friday. The union Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve, guardian minister Sandeepan Bhumre and OBC welfare minister Atul Save, apart from all the public representatives from the district will grace the function.
The Haj House was completed during the regime of the former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan. The state government had granted
Rs 17 crore for the building. To maintain social integrity, the Haj House and Vande Mataram Auditorium were built adjacent to each other at the site. Later on, the then Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, former Minority Development Minister Arif Naseem Khan and the then Education Minister Rajendra Darda performed the ‘bhoomipujan’ of the Haj House.
It may be noted that the construction was completed but the inauguration of Haj House was delayed. Hence the City District Congress Committee and its Minority Department office-bearers and members staged an agitation. The police had also arrested the agitators. When the state government was not waking up from the deep slumber despite pursuing the issue and agitating continuously then Congress senior leader Hamad Chaus filed a writ petition in the High Court. Accordingly, the court directed the state government to fix the date of the inauguration of Haj House soon and inform about it officially. Hence the inauguration has been scheduled. The Congress party will always strive and remain active in taking up the common people’s issue, said the Congress city president Shaikh Yusuf. Meanwhile, the petitioner Hamad Chaus expressed his joy on learning about the date of inauguration of the Haj House.