LG approves decision to demolish temple, Delhi CM Atishi again makes big claim

Delhi Chief Minister Atishi on Wednesday launched a fresh attack on Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, reiterating her allegation that he had ordered the demolition of temples and other religious structures in the national capital. The AAP leader claimed to have documentary evidence in support of her allegations. Atishi’s remarks came after the Lieutenant Governor on Tuesday rejected her earlier allegations, saying the Chief Minister was playing dirty politics. Atishi said the BJP-led central government was planning to demolish temples and Buddhist temples in various parts of Delhi. There is a religious committee that decides on the relocation of temples or their demolition. She said it used to come under the Home Minister of the Delhi government. Till last year, all the decisions of this committee were first placed before the Home Minister and any action was taken only after his approval. But last year, Delhi LG ordered that demolition of any religious place is a law and order issue and hence it comes under Delhi LG and hence Delhi CM or Home Minister has nothing to do with it. The Chief Minister further said that now the religious committee is directly under Delhi LG. The chairman of the committee is the Principal Secretary of the Home Department and he sends the suggestions of the committee directly to Delhi LG for approval. The religious committee had a meeting on November 22. Yesterday, LG office told the media that there is no order to demolish temples. But this is a lie. He said that in the meeting held on November 22, it was decided to demolish several temples located in West Patel Nagar, Dilshad Garden, Seemapuri, Gokalpuri, New Usmanpur and Sultanpuri and a Buddhist temple located in Sundar Nagri. All this is in the minutes of the meeting. Delhi LG has approved it and now DM and SDM are preparing to demolish these temples. The Lieutenant Governor’s office denied this allegation and termed it as “petty politics”. In a statement, the Lieutenant Governor’s Secretariat said that neither any temple, mosque, church or any other place of worship is being demolished nor has any file come to it in this regard. In a letter to Lieutenant Governor Saxena, Chief Minister Atishi said that she has been informed that the ‘Religious Committee’ has ordered the demolition of religious structures in the national capital in a meeting on November 22.