Dehradun: “Illegal” religious structures are now under the scanner of the Uttarakhand government. The forest department has been instructed to conduct a special drive to identify unauthorised mazars (mausoleums), mosques, temples, and churches that have come up on its land, ThePrint has learnt.
The department, according to a source in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), was instructed to present a report and plan the demolition of such structures as soon as possible. Similar “anti-encroachment drives” will likely also be carried out on other types of government land in the coming days.
The development comes barely three weeks after Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said that his government was aware of mazars “coming up on encroached government land”.
Uttarakhand’s Head of Forest Force and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest Vinod Kumar Singhal confirmed that his department had already begun the exercise to identify all illegal religious structures in forest areas. On 6 June, Singhal wrote to all divisional forest officers (DFOs) to ensure that such structures do not come up on forest land.
“A report will be submitted to the government once complete details are available…. Information is being collected from all the forest divisions,” Singhal said. Uttarakhand has more than 30 forest divisions.
Officials in the know about the development, meanwhile, are expecting that a comprehensive report is likely to be ready within a period of 14-30 days.
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‘Action will be taken against mazars’
At a function in Delhi on 22 May. Dhami had expressed concerns about the allegedly rising number of mazars, especially those constructed on encroached government land. “The government will not tolerate encroachments of its land and action will be taken against these mazars,” he said at an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the launch of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) magazines Organiser and Panchjanya.
Dhami also said that his government had launched a verification drive to identify “infiltrators” as Uttarakhand was witnessing “demographic shifts” in certain pockets. The chief minister had also announced that his state would make its 2018 anti-conversion law stronger, and that a five-member committee had been formed to draft a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the hill state.
The comments by Dhami were in line with the BJP manifesto for the state assembly polls held in February, that it would take steps to check alleged demographic changes in the hill districts.
In response to a query on why only one department was undertaking such a survey when illegal religious structures are allegedly present on other government land as well, the CMO official claimed that action in this respect is lined up for the future.
“This is the beginning of a big task taken up by the government. More is yet to come. It’s being done in tune with the announcement made by the CM in Delhi. Currently, the forest department has been asked to conduct the survey as such religious structures are mostly located inside forest areas,” the official said, adding that “illegal mazars and mosques constructed on other government land would also be addressed in the coming days”.
“The government is committed to freeing its encroached land. Now that the CM has won the bypoll with a record margin, the Dhami government will set an example on how to free its encroached land.”
After Dhami, the incumbent chief minister, lost his own seat during the assembly polls — despite his party’s overall victory — he was re-elected to the House through a by-election in the Champawat constituency, which he won by more than 55,000 votes.
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Push for expediting the survey
While the forest department was not given a deadline to table the report, there were instructions to expedite the process, said forest authorities.
Referring to Singhal’s order, several forest officials informed ThePrint that instructions in accordance with the government order were issued to all the state’s DFOs.
Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden Parag Madhukar Dhakate said that the forest department had already received government instructions to conduct a survey to identify illegal religious structures inside forest areas.
“The final data on illegal religious structures will be known only after the completion of the survey, but it’s true that almost every division has a good number of them,” he said. “There is also a Supreme Court order for making encroached government land free of religious structures. The government directive is based on the SC order.”
Demolitions will take place only after the survey report is tabled to the government, Dhakate added.