The Uttarakhand administration has razed illegally built 27 temples and 200 tombs from forest land during its special anti-encroachment campaign across the state, officials familiar with the development said on Sunday, adding that 56 hectares of forest land has been freed so far in the ongoing drive.
“The work to identify encroachments on forest land is on. So far, we have removed 227 illegally built religious structures, including 200 tombs (mazaars) and 27 temples from forest land in the state,” said Parag Madhukar Dhakate, chief conservator of forests (CCF) and special secretary to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. “There are various kinds of encroachments on forest land, such as hutments, resorts, houses etc.”
Dhakate was appointed as the nodal officer for identifying and removing illegal encroachments on forest land, especially in the guise of religious and other activities, on April 19.
As part of the anti-encroachment drive, which started last month on the instructions of the chief minister, the forest department has so far cleared 56 hectares of its land across the Himalayan state, a forest department official said.
Senior officials familiar with the matter said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Uttarakhand government is also planning to bring an ordinance to check people with criminal background from buying land in the hill state.
Last week, chief minister Dhami had announced that the state government would conduct the background check of people intending to purchase land in the state. “Till now the land in the state was being bought without any check. Now the same will be allowed after background check of the buyers to know why they want to buy land in the state, why they want to come into the state and why they want to live here,” Dhami had told reporters after the cabinet meeting on May 3.
The chief minister had earlier, too, indicated to act tough on illegal religious encroachments while expressing concerns over “demographic changes” in the state. On April 10, Dhami said the Uttarakhand government will not allow “land jihad” in the state, adding that the state government has “identified around 1,000 places where mazaars (tombs) and other structures have been illegally built”.
“When the same were dug, no remains were found there…We are not against anyone, but we won’t allow illegal encroachments, we won’t allow land jihad to proceed here,” he had said.
Expressing concern over “imbalances” in the demography of the state, he had added, “We will also run a special campaign in the state to check this.”
The move, however, has evoked strong criticism from the opposition Congress, which accused the BJP government of involving in “religious polarisation to hide its failures” in the state.
“People in the state want jobs and an end to corruption. Instead of doing that, the BJP government is removing mazaars from forest land to divert the attention of the people,” said Mathura Dutt Joshi, state Congress vice-president (organisation). “Everyone knows how the BJP used religion for electoral advantage.”
Rejecting the claims, the ruling BJP said that illegal religious encroachments of all communities were being cleared as part of the drive. “No one should have any objection if the state government is removing illegal encroachments from the forest land in the state,” said Manveer Singh Chauhan, state BJP in-charge. “The government is removing religious encroachments of all kinds and not targeting any one particular community.”
Chauhan added that CM Dhani has given clear instructions that encroachments be removed. “Congress has a habit of unnecessarily politicising issues. They are indulging in their age-old appeasement politics on this issue, too,” he added.