Uttarakhand authorities On September 30, finally demolished the illegal Tehri mosque on government land.
Recent coverage by popular news portal OpIndia had covered the problems caused by faced by the locals. Last few days, Hashtag #RemoveTehriMosque was trending on social media. The netizens echoed the demand of the locals to remove the illegal Tehri mosque and tagged Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to take swift action in the case.
The consequent nation wide uproar over the illegal Tehri mosque on social media finally moved the administration remove the structure. The Uttarakhand district administration and the Tourism Department which owns the land had already carried out inspections and had ordered the removal of the illegal mosque. However as usual the state minority commission, whose legal status itself is questionable, had not only taken up the illegal Tehri mosque issue but also intervened that delayed the removal of the Tehri mosque.
Also see below video by Pushpendra Kulshreshtha, on questionable constitutional status of Minority commission and hidden agenda
The history of illegal Tehri Dam mosque
In the early 2000s, during the construction, the company (JP) that was building the dam built a temporary mosque for the Muslim workers. After completing the project, the company and the workers went away, but the temporary mosque was not removed. Local leaders, Hindu organizations and locals have raised their voices against the mosque several times in the past, but no action was taken to remove the structure.
The locals claimed that on namaz days, the structure caused a large gathering in the area and several incidents of harassment of school and college going girls have been reported. In the first week of September 2021, locals led by Akshat and Hindu organisations started a new phase of protests against the mosque. It is notable here that the district administration and the Tourism Department which owns the land had already carried out inspections and had ordered the removal of the illegal mosque.
All other illegal structures in the area like temporary shops etc were already removed, but the illegal mosque kept standing. Interestingly, the administration of the mosque filed an application with the Uttarakhand minority commission against the demand of the locals. Acting on the plea, the minority commission summoned the local authorities, and the demolition order was derailed.
On September 25, SDM met the protestors and promised that action would be taken as soon as possible as the Tourist Department, which owned the land, had deemed the structure illegal. However, SDM also stated the fact that as the minority commission was involved, the locals may have to wait for the structure to get removed. Questions were also raised as to why the state minority commission is trying to intervene in the due process of removal of an illegal structure.
After the report got published in OpIndia, the issue was raised on social media at the national level by the netizens and finally the local authrorities had to muster and force removal of the illegal structure.
Source link: Opindia
More more news brief and latest news from India and Canada, check The Hindu.Ca
