Shias allow BBMP to demolish mosque wall to widen road

Members of the Shia Muslim community here have given their nod to the city corporation to demolish a wall of a mosque to widen a road.
"We do not want to give any trouble to the people of Bengaluru and the state government. We have decided to give away a portion of the mosque space, including the wall of our mosque (for road widening)," Masjid-E-Askari and Shia Graveyard managing committee president Mir Ali Jawad told PTI.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) will carry out the demolition tomorrow in presence of Mayor Sampath Raj and Congress legislator N A Harris and other officials, Jawad said.

The BBMP had planned to widen the road to ease traffic congestion about five years ago, but could not do it as the previous mosque managing committee was not interested in the proposal, he said.
The new committee took up the matter and agreed to allow the BBMP to use some space, including a wall of the mosque, for road widening, he said.
Jawad said the committee has applied for Transfer of Development Right (TDR) and "decided to ask the government to grant us a separate land for building another mosque later."

Under the TDR scheme, land owners receive twice the area of land surrendered in lieu of monetary compensation as development right.

The government issues TDR certificates to property or land owners whose property is used for development activity.
According to Jawad, there were about 18,000 Shia community members in Bengaluru and three mosques, including in Yeshvanthpur and Anepalya.