NOIDA: The Uttar Pradesh police ordered the offices and companies at Noida Sector-58 to inform their Muslim employees to offering Namaz in open areas such as parks etc, reported Indian Express.
According to the notice served to the executives of some of the companies, if the Muslim employees are found to be violating the rules, then the institute will be held responsible for it.
The notice that was issued last week has triggered concern in Noida’s industrial hub. It is being learnt that companies have demanded a dialogue with top police officials in this case.
The Noida Police defended the move saying the step has been taken to avoid any untoward incident in the wake of upcoming Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
[also_read url=”https://www.siasat.com/news/friday-namaz-disrupted-10-places-gurugram-hindutva-groups-1351073/”]‘Friday namaz’ disrupted at 10 places in Gurugram by Hindutva groups[/also_read]
“Yes, we have sent notices to many companies in our area after several complaints regarding a large number of people offering Namaz in the afternoon especially on Fridays. Since most people offering prayers are employees in companies nearby, we have sent notices to those companies to ask their employees to either offer Namaz in a Masjid, Eidgah or within the office compound on the roof etc,” said Pankaj Rai, SHO of the Sector 58 police station.
The police notice states: “We want to inform you that there is no permission from the administration to conduct any kind of religious activity including Namaz offered on Friday in the Authority park in Sector 58. It has been often seen that the Muslim workers of your company assemble in the park to offer Namaz and I, the SHO, have told the group to not hold prayers in the park. Also, their plea to the city magistrate has not received any permission to do so.”
“Thus, it is expected from you that you at your level inform your Muslim employees to not come to the park to offer Namaz. If employees of your company come to the park, it will be assumed that you have not informed your employees and your company will be held liable.”
Noida: Police have issued a notice asking companies to ensure that no religious activities are carried out in a park in Sec-58 by their employees, that includes Friday namaz.Notice also states that companies will be held responsible if employees are found offering namaz in parks. pic.twitter.com/MY9PqzuDQk
— ANI (@ANI) December 25, 2018
Ajay Pal,SSP,Noida: Few people had asked for permission for religious prayers in a park in Sec 58. In spite of no permission granted from city magistrate office people congregated.The companies in the area were informed about it.The info is not specific to any particular religion pic.twitter.com/qxv2ryoyqs
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) December 25, 2018
Sector 58 is predominantly an IT and services hub. The companies that have office include Alstom Systems, HCL Technologies, TCS, Samsung, Polaris, Xansa, Interra, R Systems, RMSI, Cadence, Adobe international, ST Microelectronics and Minda Huf.