In Cambridgeshire, land for temple was not given to Hindus, allotted to church and Muslim group.

New Delhi . British Hindus trying to build their first place of worship in Northstowe, a new town in Cambridgeshire, Britain, have suffered a major setback. The local council has allotted a piece of land to a church and a Muslim group instead of giving it to a Hindu charity. After this decision came out, there is a lot of disappointment among about 150 Hindu families living in the area.

What is the whole matter?

South Cambridgeshire District Council has leased 0.25 hectares of land to ‘Northstowe Church Network’ (NCN) for 999 years. For this they will have to pay only nominal fare.

According to a report, ‘Hindu Samaj Northstove’ (HSN), formed by local residents, had also bid for this land. He had proposed to build a temple as well as a ‘Sarvadharma’ and well-being center here. However, council officials assessing the bids gave HSN’s proposal a score of 65% and NCN’s proposal 81%, leading to the land going to the church network.

How did the Muslim group become a partner?

The Northstowe Church Network (NCN) proposal included Muslims of Northstowe as the anchor tenant. This proposal includes building a separate Islamic prayer room and education center for them. Nawash, president of the Northstowe Muslim Group, said there are about 200 Muslims in the city who needed a permanent place to offer prayers five times a day, as community spaces do not remain open for that long. This is why he had applied as an anchor tenant. At the same time, NCN spokesperson says that local communities and faith groups will also be allowed to rent space.

What is the problem of Hindu families?

Cambridgeshire has many churches and mosques, but not a single Hindu temple. Hindus have to travel two hours to Birmingham or Wembley to worship. They cannot rent community spaces overnight, making it difficult to celebrate festivals like Ganpati. The situation is such that the idols of God have to be kept in carry bags and kept in the garage. Many statues have also been broken due to being moved from place to place.

Abhishek Srivastava, who went to UK from Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, says that he sometimes feels that he made a mistake by coming to UK, because his 9 and 12 year old children are not able to participate in Hindu festivals. At the same time, 16 year old Eva says that she has never celebrated Shivratri all night long nor has she ever seen ‘havan’. “I often see my cousins ​​in India celebrating festivals. My generation here is becoming completely disconnected from its roots, culture and heritage,” she says.

Hindu charity raised questions on the process

HSN President Aparna Nigam-Saxena expressed disappointment over the decision and raised questions on transparency. He said he was considering appealing the decision. In fact, HSN’s bid was deducted points for several reasons, including lack of ‘financial track record’. Aparna said that she did not know that this was an important factor. If the council wanted ready quotations from architects, they should have provided guidelines for the same.

Councilor Dr Lisa Redrup, on the other hand, defended the decision, saying, “The bids were assessed based on clear criteria, which were available to all. Applicants had to explain the needs of their project and their religious practices.”