Cops fail to demolish shrine on encroached land

A white marble Hanuman temple, built by a trust owned by Chhattisgarh Assembly Speaker Gouri Shankar Agrawal on encroached land in the scenic Mahadev Ghat on the fringe of Raipur city, survived Sunday’s demolition drive conducted as per Supreme Court directive.

While the police clarified that the drive had to be suspended mid-way owing to “people’s resistance”, RTI activist Rakesh Choubey described the whole exercise was a “well planned” move to save the shrine from being demolished. “An atmosphere of religious hysteria was created in Raipur by vested interests by spreading news on the demolition drive a day earlier on Saturday spurring devotees to march to the temple and disrupt the operation. It was a well-planned move by the state administration to save the temple from being dismantled,” Mr Choubey, who was a petitioner on the issue in the Apex Court, told this newspaper.

“Compliance of apex Court’s directive was not done. I will produce all documents before the Supreme Court to expose the state government”, he added.

He alleged that the state government had resorted to gimmicks by undertaking the demolition drive “superfluously” to argue before the Apex Court that the temple could not be demolished due to protests by the people. The state government was required to file a compliance report to the Supreme Court on July 12. “If the state government was serious to dismantle the temple, then it should have shifted the deity first before launching the demolition drive as per the Supreme Court order,” he argued.

The demolition squad, which launched the operation in the early hours of Sunday, bulldozed 19 commercial shops built inside the premises of the shrine and then suspended the exercise following “protests” by agitated devotees. “The temple could not be pulled down due to people’s resistance,” the local police told reporters.