The Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) has decided not to allow Dewanbag Darbar Sharif organizes its ‘Urs’ (annual religious gathering) in the capital considering the people’s suffering. This decision came barely a month after the Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) denied Kutubbagh Darbar Sharif permission to hold it Urs.
Dewanbag’s media spokesperson Sayeed Mehedi Hasan said they would not organize their annual gathering in Dhaka if the city corporation did not permit them.
Kutubbagh has shifted its annual Urs and Ijtema to Narayanganj.
Dewanbag took initiative to hold its Urs this year in Arambagh, Fakirapool, Motijheel and Kamalapur like previous occasions. It is scheduled to take place on February 2 and 3. It was planning to seek the DSCC’s permission but the city corporation made its stance clear before that.
Officials of the two city corporations said these types of annual gatherings involved a lot of work that led to traffic congestions, public sufferings and nuisance.
Both the DSCC and DNCC have long been requesting various social and religious organizations to move these programmes outside Dhaka. Last year, the DNCC permitted Kutubbagh to organize its Urs at Farmgate on certain conditions but had ordered it to hold its annual gathering outside the capital. But when Kutubbagh organized its Urs ignoring the order, the DNCC moved in and foiled its preparations on December 17.
Arambagh’s Dewanbag Darbar Sharif, under the DSCC area, organizes similar programmes but it will not be allowed to hold such gathering from this year.
“We will not allow holding such religious programmes from this year because it causes public sufferings,” DSCC’s Chief Estate Officer Kamrul Islam Chowdhury said. “Moreover, preparations start long before the programme and they result in massive gridlocks, increases sufferings of the locals and causes nuisance,” he added.
Dewanbag’s media spokesperson Mehedi claimed that welfare of the people was their only goal. “We will not hold our Urs in Dhaka if the city corporation does not permit us. But if it does, we will follow all the conditions,” he said.
