By IANS
London : The Hindu community in Bradford is upset after the city council expressed its inability to fund the hiring of the City Hall for the annual Diwali celebration.
The World Council of Hindus (Yorkshire) has requested authorities in this north Yorkshire town with a large population of people of South Asian origin to continue the funding that has been provided by the city council for the last 15 years.
“It’s disgusting. The council would like to put the city council on notice that Hindus do not accept this situation and would like to remind it of its obligations to all the citizens of the city without fear or favour,” the World Council of Hindus chairman Murari Lal Gupta said.
“The Hindus had entered into a gentleman’s agreement with the council 15 years ago and expect it to honour it for all times to come,” he added.
In the past, the festival was marked by a ceremonial switching-on of the city’s Diwali lights and an event at the Banqueting Hall in City Hall. Both were normally attended by the Lord Mayor, the Telegraph and Argus newspaper reported.
But the city council said it had informed the Hindu body about the cuts more than two years ago.
The council’s deputy chief executive Jo Miller said: “To book City Hall for events there is a commercial rate and a non-commercial rate for not for profit organisations. Dr Gupta has been informed that he could book City Hall at a non-commercial rate that covers council costs only.
“At no point did we commit to funding the room for this event and we have confirmed this in writing to Dr Gupta on a number of occasions and going back as far as 2005,” Miller said.
“We continue to support the Diwali lights by installing and maintaining them. We enjoy celebrating all festivals and events in Bradford and hope the Hindu community understands our position on this.”