Journalism of Courage
Even as the Bombay High Court extended the time frame for demolition of illegal religious structures till August 2016 instead of May, the Pune district administration has listed only two such structures in the Shirur taluka.
Senior district officials said that the demolition should be carried out much ahead of the deadline. The district administration had earlier readied a list of illegal religious structures and the count was 1,231. However, post September 2009 sees only two such structures, an official said.
The total number of structures listed by the district level committee for Pune is 1,231, of which 920 would be regularised, 301 demolished and 10 shifted. The administration has readied the list of structures, which mostly come under rural areas, Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation and Pimpri Chinchwad New Town Development Authority (PCNTDA).
On Thursday, the Bombay High Court had pulled up municipal authorities as well as the state government for their slow progress in demolishing illegal religious structures across the state. It had asked all authorities to ensure that such structures are demolished as per deadline by August 17, 2016.
Justice AS Oka and Justice CV Bhadang were hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the Society for Fast Justice, an NGO, against illegal shrines in the city.The state government had issued a Government Resolution (GR) according to which it had to start demolishing all illegal religious shrines that have sprung up after September 2009. According to figures provided by the state government, there are 2,225 illegal religious structures of which 1,743 were constructed post September 2009.
