SRINAGAR: Individuals moving against the currents in vogue and rare and exceptional but they exist always. Right now when the polarisation between communities is the vogue, two Hindu sisters donated a vast stretch of land to Muslims for expanding their Eidgah.
The rare donation was reported from Kashipur town in Uttarkhand’s Udham Singh Nagar district where it is located in Bailjudi village.
The sisters – Saroj and Anita – live in Delhi and Meerut. They were told by some relative that their father Brijnandan Prasad Rastogi had his last wish to donate his four bigha land for expansion of the Eidgah. However, he died, twenty years ago in January 2003, before he could share his wish with his children.
In a quick follow-up, the media reports said, the two sisters got in touch with their brother, Rakesh Rastogi, and sought his consent. Within hours, they announced the donation. The 20424 sq ft land values Rs 1.5 crore, reports suggest.
“We have taken possession of the land and started constructing a boundary wall,” Haseen Khan, the head of the Kashipur area’s Idgah committee was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times. “It is a great act or gesture of these sisters in such an atmosphere when our country is reeling under communal frenzy.”
The Eidgah already has around four acres of land but was requiring expansion to accommodate around 20,000 Muslim worshippers.
The landlord had distributed the land between his son and daughters before his death. The land he wished to donate to a Muslim praying space was part of his daughters.
On Sunday, two days ahead of the Eid, the two sisters arrived in Jaspur and contacted the Kashipur committee head to transfer the land after due process by revenue officials.
Saroj Rastogi, 62, one of the sisters told reporters that her “big-hearted” father respected all faiths and used to donate some amount to the Idgah committee every year for arrangements. Muslims said they were already using the space on Eid for prayers.
(Photograph used in the report is merely representational)
