JAIPUR: Politics has heated up in the desert state after a bulldozer was run over a temple during an anti-encroachment drive in Alwar district. While the BJP said the state’s ruling Congress was doing “revenge politics”, the latter retaliated by pointing out that the temple demolition was initiated by a BJP-ruled municipality board.
The Rajgarh administration claimed that action was taken to remove encroachments according to the town’s master plan. According to revenue records, there was a road of about 60 feet but now it is not even 25-foot-wide. Over the years, there have been a lot of encroachments, the town administration said.
Meanwhile, Hindu organisations accused Congress MLA Johri Lal Meena, SDM Keshav Kumar Meena and EO Banwari Lal Meena of collusion to demolish the temple. They alleged the police didn’t file an FIR despite their complaint.
While the chairman of the municipality board said the action was taken at the level of the administration, local officials claimed a resolution to clear the encroachment was passed by the municipality. A video of MLA Meena is going viral on social media. In the video, he is seen telling people that they had elected a BJP board and that was why the demolition happened. He claimed in the video that 34 councillors of the BJP gave their consent to remove the encroachments while the Congress had only one councillor.
District Collector Nakate Shivprasad said the decision to take up the demolition drive was made unanimously in the second meeting of the newly elected Municipality Board. “Action was taken on two
temples. One temple, which was built recently, was standing on top of an existing drain. The idols installed in the private temple built over the drain were taken away by the temple authorities themselves before the encroachment was removed. Only a negligible part of the second temple was demolished,” the collector said.