Badapahad dargah to get facelift for annual Urs

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has drawn up plans to improve facilities at the Hazrath Syed Sadullah Hussaini dargah

NIZAMABAD: Badapahad dargah or Hazrath Syed Sadullah Hussaini dargah at Jalalpur village will get a facelift in time for the annual Urs in the second week of April.

The popular pilgrim centre in Telangana, also known as Pedda Gutta or Bada Pahad dargah, was built in the memory of medieval Sufi saint Sadullah Hussaini at Jalalpur village in Varni mandal, 38 km from the district headquarters. The dargah is under the Wakf Board.

Different practices

An estimated 1 lakh believers visit the dargah during the annual Urs, comprising Muslim as well as Hindu believers from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The devotees have to climb about 1,000 steps to summit the hill.

Probably this is only the place where the beggars sitting on its steps accept old and outdated coins. They then exchange the collection among themselves and also with local traders at lower values.

Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, under whose constituency Banswada the pilgrim centre is located, has taken up the task of improving the facilities according to a master plan.

Improve facilities

He has directed the administration to ensure that all purchases and expenditures are taken up only with the permission of the dargah committee chairperson — Bodhan Sub-Collector Sikta Patnaik.

In a meeting with officials and elected representatives he asked the officials to modernise the slaughterhouse where Muslims and Hindus butcher goats, sheep and rams. He directed the administration to dig additional borewells as per the requirement and build an overhead tank and lay new roads and build amenities for women.

Better administration

With a view to curb the fleecing of devotees by some of the traders and other locals, the Minister directed Bodhan Assistant SP, vice chairperson of the dargah committee, to post two homeguards at the pilgrim centre and install security cameras.

Mr. Srinivas Reddy asked the officials to appoint eight employees from different departments on deputation to look into the day-to-day administration.

The new dargah committee comprises Sub-Collector as chairperson, ACP as vice-chairperson, and Varni MPP, ZPTC and market committee chairperson as members.