Religious structures cleared for road project in Northeast Delhi

PWD minister Atishi requested lieutenant governor VK Saxena to halt the anti-encroachment drive targeting religious structures

The Public Works Department, with other government agencies, undertook an anti-encroachment drive in east Delhi’s Bhajanpura on Sunday morning during which two religious structures — a temple and a mazar — were removed using bulldozers, officials aware of the matter said.

Officials said work on the Delhi-Saharanpur highways is going on in the area where encroachments were removed. (Vipin Kumar/HT Photo)

Meanwhile, PWD minister Atishi requested lieutenant governor VK Saxena to halt the anti-encroachment drive targeting religious structures as “they are associated with people’s faiths”.

Meanwhile, an LG secretariat official, on condition of anonymity, said that the anti-encroachment drives are being conducted by PWD. “Why doesn’t the government stall it? LG is not involved with this,” said the official. However, there was no official response from the LG secretariat despite repeated queries seeking a comment.

A senior PWD official said that the drive was undertaken amidst heavy police presence to maintain law and order and teams from the agency, Municipal Corporation Delhi, and the district administration were present.

The official said that the action was taken according to the recommendations of the religious committee.

“All the roads leading to the site were closed. The drive started around 6am and lasted for around three hours. The drive was conducted to decongest the area to widen the Delhi-Saharanpur highway as well as construct a double-decker flyover. The presence of these two structures was leading to congestion points along this route on the main Wazirabad road,” an official said, requesting anonymity.

Reacting to the development, the PWD minister Atishi tweeted in Hindi, “LG Sahab, I had written a letter to you requesting that the decision to demolish the temples and other religious structures should be taken back but on your orders, a temple in Bhajanpura has been demolished today. I request that temples and other religious places not be demolished in Delhi. People’s faith is linked with them.”

There have been multiple encroachment removal drives in the city against unauthorised religious structures in the last few months. PWD removed an unauthorised temple and a mosque located on the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg near ITO on February 25. Agencies conducted a similar encroachment removal drive at the site of an old dargah near the shrine of Hazrat Nizamuddin in south Delhi on April 1, and Hasanpur and Ghazipur on April 27. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) also carried out anti-encroachment drives on mazars located opposite the Sunehri Bagh mosque near Udyog Bhawan on April 5.

On June 22 last week, the minister had written a letter to Saxena saying she was informed that 14 religious structures were to be demolished including 11 temples and three mazars.

The letter said that former PWD minister and deputy CM Manish Sisodia had opposed the demolition of these structures during a meeting of the religious committee in February 2023 while recommending changes in site plans of the infrastructure projects (to accommodate these structures).

In the letter, Atishi said that when this file was put up to LG, he overturned the proposal and gave the order to demolish the religious structures.

“The officers also informed me that LG has noted in the file that the demolition of religious structures pertains to law and order, and the LG is the competent authority to decide on this. In the future, all files related to the demolition of religious structures should not be sent to the elected government. The files should be sent to you directly from the chief secretary,” Atishi wrote.

Last week, during an anti-encroachment drive near a temple in east Delhi’s Mandawali, residents confronted the police and paramilitary personnel leading to protests.

Joy Tirkey, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) (northeast) said that Sunday’s drive was carried out peacefully. “The drive was carried out with the cooperation of the residents. We came early around 3.30am and addressed the apprehensions of the residents. All efforts were made by civic agencies not to damage the idols,” he added.

Seelampur sub-divisional magistrate Sharat Kumar said the decision was approved by the religious committee and the drive was carried out following orders of the LG.

“It was done peacefully and there was no problem. This is a sensitive area but no resistance from any community was faced”, Kumar said.

In 2009, the Supreme Court issued orders to demolish/relocate/regulate unauthorised religious structures from all public places and barred any further occupation by such structures. In 2014, Delhi set up a religious committee headed by the home secretary to consider such matters and make recommendations.