TIRUPPUR: In a heartwarming gesture, a group of Muslims donated three cents of land to their Hindu neighbours for the construction of a temple in Padiyur village in Tiruppur district. They also brought gifts during the consecration ceremony of the temple on Sunday. The temple came up on a part of a vast private property, Rose Garden, promoted by two Muslims two decades ago.
Sources said several Muslims reside in this private layout, though a few Hindu families too have built houses. Mohammed Raja (40), a resident and a garment company owner, told TNIE, “I bought a plot here 18 years ago. The entire layout has hundreds of plots and most of them are owned by Muslims.
Since it is a private layout, 10 Hindu families also have built homes here. They did not have a temple and had requested land in this regard. The ‘Rose Garden Muslim Jamaat’ found their request genuine and donated three cents of land worth Rs 6 lakh to them three months ago.”
S Kanagaraj, another resident, told TNIE, “We live in complete harmony. Since the layout promotion was carried out by two Muslims, they allocated land for building a mosque 20 years ago. When we requested land for constructing a temple, they said that they had to get permission from the community elders.
Three months ago, they gave us a piece of land. We collected Rs 10 lakh through donations from locals and panchayat presidents and constructed a temple. During the kumbhabhishekam, Muslim friends donated Rs 30,000 for the ‘annadanam’ and also brought ‘Seer Varisai.’