Dehradun: Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, politics has heated up over over illegally built religious places over encroached land in Uttarakhand with Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami saying that ''land jihad will not be tolerated” in the state. Chief Minister Dhami while speaking at a function in Nainital on Friday, Apr. 7, said that the government was “no against anybody”.
“We believe in law. Encroachment on any department land whether Forest Department or PWD or any other department will not be allowed. Land jihad won't be tolerated,” CM Dhami said. The statement has triggered a political storm in the political quarters with the ruling BJP and opposition Congress training guns at each other over the government's anti-encroachment drive in the hill state.
President of the main opposition Congress, Karan Mehra has issued a communique directing all its spokespersons and leaders not to make statements on religious matters. The Congress has accused the Pushkar Dhami government of trying to divert the public attention from the real issues ahead of the upcoming elections.
Also read: Ruling BJP, Cong lock horns over crackdown against encroachments in U'khand
Congress State President Karan Mehra said that any particular religion should not be targeted in the ongoing anti-encroachment drive. “Whoever commits encroachment is wrong. The old temples and tombs should be regularized, because they were built years ago. But the recently built illegal religious place should not be allowed.
The government has the right to protect its property, but religion should not come in the way,” he said. BJP's state spokesperson Virendra Bisht said that the Congress was using the “intruders from Bangladesh as a vote bank” in the ongoing demolition drive. “Such people, who have settled in Uttarakhand from outside have the protection of Congress leaders who use them as vote bank by doing politics of appeasement. Under the guise of illegal tombs and mosques, they also do the work of conversion. But, illegal constructions will not be tolerated,” he said.
Significantly, 70 percent of the Uttarakhand's land is forest area, but for the last few years, encroachments have build up on the land of the forest department. Garhwal and Kumaon regions in Uttarakhand have vast forests like Rajaji National Park and Jim Corbett National Park. It is said that illegal construction works in the name of religion are flourishing on the land of forest department.
The Uttarakhand Forest Department had also prepared a list of illegal religious places last year regarding illegal occupation of forest areas with hundreds of religious places identified in the forest area. According to officials, many religious places have been built in Kalagarh, Bijrani, Sonanadi Range, Jhirna, Sarpadulli and Dhela within the Corbett Tiger Reserve Pak.