Andhra Pradesh News

After inaction by Andhra officials, LRPF seeks urgent intervention from Centre to undo land encroachment by Evangelists

March 2, 2021
The Commune

Andhra Pradesh, which has in recent months seen a spate of attacks on Hindu temples, is now facing a new onslaught in a full-blown attempt to erode the region’s Hindu culture and traditions. Much like the Roman Emperor Constantine, it is being alleged, the state government and the bureaucrats under YS Jagan Reddy are pushing for a total Christianisation of the state.

Inaction by Andhra Pradesh government officials forced the Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) to write to the Centre on Tuesday, March 2, asking for immediate action against the illegal construction of a church and the erection of a cross. Both structures are built on encroached land.

“The said construction of the illegal Church started a few months back and was noticed by villagers who made formal complaints with the Mandal Revenue Officer on 05-01-2021. As there is no response from Mandal Revenue Officer, locals wrote to Revenue Divisional Officer, District Collector, Principal Secretary (Mining) and Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh on 12-01-2021 seeking action in this matter but there is no response till date”, the letter, a copy of which is with The Commune, states.

“The intentional inaction of the concerned public authorities has led to the state where they had installed a huge metal cross of nearly 2.5 tons weight on the top of the mining hill. It shows the utter irresponsibility and negligence of the concerned officials and moreover raising doubt among the public that they got compromised with Christian organization”, the letter adds.

Illegal construction going on for weeks, no action taken by AP officials

Christian Evangelists, in recent weeks, erected a huge cross and illegally constructed a church by encroaching the land on a hill at Edlapadu in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh. Complaints seeking a halt to the illegal construction were filed with the Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) Srinivas on 5 January. However, no action was taken. Instead, the MRO told the complainant that he was getting calls from “the Home Minister”.

Locals and activists associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party formally filed formal complaints on 12 January with the Revenue Divisional Officer, the District Collector, the Principal Secretary (Andhra Pradesh Department of Mines) and the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh and sought action against encroachment of the mining hill. There has been no response to their complaint till date.

The Legal Rights Protection Forum (LRPF) has alleged that the inaction seen in the Andhra Pradesh government officials is deliberate.

Christian Evangelists now have complete control over large tracts of land in the area. They allegedly plan to build malls and commercialise the entire area, which is adjacent to a National Highway, cashing in on prime real estate.

‘No unauthorised construction of any religious institutions on public space’, says 2009 SC order

The LRPF, on Tuesday March 2, finally wrote to Prahlad Joshi, Union Minister of Mines, detailing the facts of the case so far. The letter pointed out that according to the Supreme Court order (Special Leave to Appeal (Civil)No:8519/2006 dated 29-09-2009), “no unauthorized construction of any religious institutions namely Temple, Church, Mosque or Gurudwar, etc., shall be permitted on Public Street/Public Space”.

“The above said act of encroaching public land and constructing religious structure comes under the contempt of Supreme Court, which is a serious crime. In the view of the above circumstances, we request your good office to intervene in this matter and take immediate action”, the letter states.

The letter asks the Centre to:

1. Remove the illegal structures constructed at the encroached site

2. Impose penalty on the Church Organization who committed this crime

3. Order a departmental enquiry and take action against concerned public authorities who intentionally ignored this huge illegality even after making several complaints

Click here to subscribe to The Commune on Telegram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.