Ravidas temple demolition: Only Centre can denotify forest land, says AAP; BJP calls claim‘half-truth’

The monsoon session of the Delhi Assembly started on a stormy note on Thursday over the Ravidas temple issue.

Delhi’s environment minister Kailash Gahlot on Friday said it is the central government that can approve denotifying of forest land in the national capital and accused Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta of misleading the Delhi Assembly in connection with the ongoing dispute over the Ravidas temple demolition, which led to widespread protests by Dalit groups.

A man holds a placard during a protest against the demolition of Sant Ravidas Temple, in New Delhi. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

Gupta, however, who is the BJP legislator from Rohini assembly segment, dismissed the allegation.

Gahlot read out excerpts of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, a notification issued by the union ministry of environment in 2003 and rules amended up to August 2017 to substantiate his argument.

“A Delhi Development Authority (DDA) notification clearly says that the concerned land comes under protected forest land category. The approval to convert that into land under non-forest category can be given only by the central government, and not the Delhi government. Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta has mislead the Assembly on this issue,” said Gahlot.

Reacting to Gahlot’s remarks, Gupta said, “The minister is quoting half-truths to mislead people. The same laws say that the Centre is the authority to take a call on the issue of protected forest lands in the city but only on the recommendation of the nodal officer appointed by the state government.”

Kejriwal had further said that the Delhi government is ready to bear all expenses to rebuild the temple if the Centre agrees to allot land for the same. This was later passed as a resolution in the House.

Gupta, however, had alleged that the Aam Aadmi Party was politicising the issue and the matter related to approval on denotifying the forest land for the purpose of rebuilding the temple in the same site was in the Delhi government’s court, not the Centre’s.