Age old religious structures in danger of demolition

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, December 22: According to available reports, 1,579 religious structures are in danger of being demolished as per Supreme Court directives. Of these 1,202 are Hindu religious structures, while 281 are Muslim, 79 are Christian, and 17 are Jain religious structures.

363 of these religious structures are located in Mangalore, while 352 are in Bantwal, 298 are in Belthangady, 136 are in Sullia, 98 are in Moodubidri, 152 are in Puttur, and 150 are in Kadaba. Although the first list announced by the district administration had only 640 structures, the final list announced showed that 1,112 religious structures in Udupi are in danger of being demolished.

Mohan Gowda, the spokesperson of Hindu Jana Jagruthi Vedike, said that the government has approved the demolition of several structures although there is scope to regularize many of them. He also informed that the Supreme Court has not given a final verdict regarding the demolition of religious structures causing public inconvenience. According to the Supreme Court’s interim verdict, religious structures constructed after Dec 7, 2009 should be demolished. But structures constructed before Dec 7, 2009 should be studied carefully, regularized, relocated, or demolished if necessary. Unfortunately, the state government in its affidavit has assured that it will clear all illegal religious structures by Dec 31, 2010. He added that only Karnataka has given a deadline to clear the structures.

He said that the Supreme Court order clearly states that all structures over 30 years of age can be regularized, the government of Karnataka is only thinking along the lines of demolishing these structures and not along the lines of regularizing and relocating them. He added that century-old temples in DK are now in danger of being demolished. He said that the Mukhya Prana Temple of Mangalore, which is over 100 years old, has also received notices from the district administration. According to Gowda, the Supreme Court has only asked for a report on illegal structures, and not on their demolition.

Accusing the government, which had once promised to protect Hindu temples, of attempting to demolish century-old heritage structure, he said that most of the temples in the list of illegal religious structures are over 100 years old. These should be regularized, and not demolished, as per the orders of the Supreme Court.

In response to a query, he said that the religious structures have already moved to obtain a stay order for the demolition drive.

He said that, according to the latest order, around 300 religious structures are to be relocated, but nobody knows where the structures are to be relocated.