Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Delhi MP Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma on Tuesday wrote to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal seeking “immediate action” on the alleged mushrooming of mosques on government land and roads in several parts of the city, including his constituency, PTI reported.

Verma won a second term in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections with a margin of more than 5.7 lakh votes. He had the highest victory margin in Delhi.

“I would like to apprise you regarding a peculiar type of trend seen in certain parts of my constituency in particular but prevailing in whole Delhi,” Verma said in the letter to the lieutenant governor. “Of mushrooming of mosques on government land, roads and secluded places. Such mosques not only ‘hamper’ traffic flow but also cause ‘inconvenience’ to the public in general.”

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He claimed that if this problem of construction of mosques is not attended to on a priority basis, it will take an “ugly shape” and will become difficult to manage later. A multi-agency committee, including civic bodies and police headed by district magistrates concerned should be formed, to address “this menace”, he wrote. He said a committee of officers from Municipal Corporation of Delhi, New Delhi Municipal Council, Public Works Department, Police, Irrigation and Flood Control, and Horticulture departments should conduct surveys and proper inquiry into the matter.

Last year, Hindutva groups in Gurgaon had prevented Muslims from offering prayers in several open spaces. Hindu residents of two villages in Gurgaon’s Sector 53 had also prevented Muslims from offering namaaz on a government-owned plot. The villagers had alleged that Muslims used the prayers as an excuse to encroach on government land. The villagers soon got the support of local units of several Hindutva groups, which also organised protests against Muslims praying in public.