State says it will raze them by May
State says it will raze them by May
The Bombay high court on Tuesday reprimanded the Maharashtra government for acting too slowly against illegal shrines in the state, following which the government assured the court that it would demolish the illegal religious structures by May this year.
A division bench of headed by justice Abhay S. Oka was hearing a PIL filed by social activist Bhagwanji Riyani and few NGOs, including ‘Society for Fast Justice’, seeking implementation of the apex court order directing all the states to demolish illegal shrines.
The bench directed the state to file an affidavit by February 15 on compliance of the November 2015 high court order asking the authorities to demolish illegal shrines within six months. During the hearing, the court observed that three months had already passed since the court had passed the order but the government had taken action only against around 10 per cent of the illegal structures. The bench also warned the government to strictly follow its commitment to demolishing illegal shrines in the state, which had come up after 2009, and any laxity on its part would be viewed seriously. The judges then adjourned the hearing till February 18.
When the matter came up for hearing this morning, the bench asked the state to provide the figures of shrines demolished in the last three months. On this, the government pleader sought time till Wednesday but the judges said they wanted to know today itself the numbers of the shrines that have been demolished or else they would issue contempt notice to the authorities.
Later in the afternoon session, government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani said, “We (government) are committed to demolish illegal shrines by May 2016 and will either shift them to other places or regularise them.”
When the bench sought details of action taken so far, advocate Vagyani said 881 shrines had been identified in the state (except Mumbai) as illegal and of them, 41 structures had been demolished. While in the limits of the BMC, 862 shrines had been identified as illegal and 28 of them were demolished.
