Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Tuesday alleged that Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is pretending to protect the unauthorised religious structures from demolition.
“The doublespeak and hypocrisy of Dy CM Manish Sisodia has once against been called out, this time over the issue of demolition of unauthorised religious structures. The unauthorised religious structures that Sisodia is pretending to “protect from demolition”, were actually recommended to be demolished by Sisodia himself which was further approved by CM Arvind Kejriwal and sent to the LG for his nod,” an official note from the Raj Bhavan said.
On Monday, Deputy CM Sisodia appealed to the Delhi L-G to prevent the demolition of temples, mazars, and gurudwaras for infrastructure development projects in the national capital.
Addressing a press conference here at Delhi Secretariat, Sisodia said that these religious structures are visited by lakhs of devotees and have strong emotional connections with people, and their demolition could trigger a law and order situation in the capital.
Sisodia’s appeal came after the Delhi Police released reports regarding the religious structures, recommending that the demolition can cause a riot situation but if it is still necessary, they [Delhi Police] would have to deploy a security force. However, the L-G had claimed that the Delhi government was holding back files related to the demolition of temples, mazars, and gurudwaras, which he claimed was affecting various development projects. A total of 67 temples, six mazars, and one gurudwara have been identified for demolition in 19 files.
