AURANGABAD: The gram sabha of Dhasla village in Badnapur taluka of Jalna district has passed a resolution that the loudspeakers will not be removed from the village mosque.
The resolution has been passed by the villagers led by sarpanch Ram Patil, who also happens to be Badnapur taluka vice president of BJP. The decision was unanimously supported by the gram panchayat body, which has nine members of BJP.
He told TOI, “We do not want outside politics to enter our village and pollute the atmosphere. The issue of loudspeakers came up during the recently held gram sabha and villagers unanimously decided that we will neither remove the loudspeakers nor will allow others to do that.”
He went on to state that none of the villagers have any problem with Azaan. When asked about their stand being against the party’s stand, Patil said, “I received some calls from party leaders but I explained to them that the decision has been taken by the entire village,”
Village Dhasla along with village Peerbawda are part of a group gram panchayat. The two villages together have a total population of about 2,500 people.
Deputy sarpanch Vijay Pattekar said, “Relationship amongst villagers has always remained cordial and we would never like to vitiate it. Though the issue was specifically related to a loudspeaker on the sole mosque we have, it applies to all the religious structures in our two villages.”
During the gram sabha meeting held on March 24, mosque’s Imam Zahir Baig said that already the Masjid management has been asked to follow the loudspeaker-related norms.
Elderly villager Shaikh Akbar said, “We always shared very cordial relations with each other, but the manner in which all the non-Muslim villagers came together and unanimously took the decision about the loudspeaker, has made us indebted forever.”
