Two temples allegedly built on encroached land on Tajpur road have become an issue of contention between residents and area MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon. While the Municipal Corporation claims that both temples are on encroached land, the temple committees are of the opinion that land was allotted to them and they will not allow demolition of the two temples. On Tuesday, a recorded conversation purportedly between Ludhiana East MLA Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Shri Shani Dev temple committee head Mukesh Khurana was circulated in the media. In the audio clip, Khurana was heard talking about “70% of Hindu votes” in the area and warning Dhillon that he must not demolish the temples. Dhillon reportedly said, “No religion in name of votes will be allowed to encroach the land.” [related-post] On Monday, MC team visited the area to demolish the Shivling in the park and inspect Shani Temple site. Following which, some locals allegedly detained and locked MC officials in a room and misbehaved with them and said that they will not allow the demolition. On Wednesday, when Newsline visited both the spots, locals told that the Shani Temple ,which the management claims exists since 1992, came up 2-3 years back. Similarly, a public park situated a little away from the Shani Temple has a Shivling. Locals claim that Shivling has been there for the past 10 years but a shed around the Shivling was constructed this Shivratri. Khurana said, “The Shani temple exists since 1992 and it was never in list of MC encroachments. Suddenly the MC team wants to demolish it.” However, MC sources said, “Two years back, there was tension between Hindu and Sikh communities and land originally is in the name of LIT. Sources also confirmed that an agreement was reached between both sides that neither a temple nor a gurdwara will be constructed here but a new government school will come up. MLA Dhillon said, “In the phone recording too, Khurana tried to provoke me in name of Hindu votes.” Kamlesh Bansal, zonal commissioner of area and Vijay Kumar, assistant town planner (Additional charge) Zone B, said, “As per our records, both sites are on encroached land but we have given a chance to the temple head to present the documents as they are claiming that the land was allotted to them.”
