Meet favours kabrastan at Sonsodo
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 21
Will the government finally set up the kabrastan for Margao’s Muslim community at Sonsodo?
Well, a high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Monday morning has strongly favoured setting up a kabrastan for the Muslim community at Sonsodo near the Christian cemetery.
In fact, the meeting has told the Margao Municipal Council to begin the process of acquiring land admeasuring around 30,000 square meters behind the existing cemetery at Sonsodo.
Chaired by the chief minister, the meeting issued instructions to government agencies, including the Town and Country Planning Department to issue all required NOCs to the civic body for the acquisition of land.
The meeting was attended amongst others by Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho, Chief Officer Y B Tawde, Chief Town Planner and senior government officials.
Sources said the meeting deliberated on the burning controversy at length in the wake of directions passed by the Delhi-based National Commission for the Minorities to acquire land for the kabrastan within six months.
It is learnt that the meeting did not touch upon the demand from certain quarters in the Muslim community to allot land for the burial grounds in Aquem. The meeting also did not take up the issue of a cemetery as requested by the Our Lady of Grace Church, Margao.
When contacted, Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho said that as per the instructions from the Committee, the proposal to have a kabrastan at Sonsodo would be placed before the Council meeting scheduled on June 28.
In fact, the June 28 meeting of the Council was scheduled to deliberate on the long-pending demand of the Muslim community for a kabrastan in the city since the existing burial grounds at Pajifond has reached a point of saturation. “The Council was scheduled to discuss the kabrastan at its meeting on June 28. The proposal made at today’s meeting convened by the chief minister would be placed before the Council meeting,” he added.
Incidentally, at their last meeting on the burning kabrastan issue, the City Fathers could neither identify any suitable land for the kabrastan nor take any concrete decision. Instead, the civic body had passed the buck on the district collector, South to identify and shortlist sites for the burial grounds.
