Christian evangelists in the Dorasanipalli village region of Kadappa district in Andhra Pradesh have illegally encroached a large area of land to expand the building of a Church, by forcefully evicting Scheduled Caste members who originally lived there. Notably, the demographic of this region comprises predominantly of Hindus.
This has been a great cause of concern to the people who are living there, and the pleas of those living there are falling on deaf ears of the police officials in the area. This also evoked protests in the region, claiming it was illegal to construct a church in the region, without proper intimation from the authorities and an appropriate amount of notice period for the inhabitants of the area to vacate it.
A petition has been filed by the Legal Rights Protection Forum to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and District Collector of Kadapa, that seeks protection of the rights of those the Scheduled Caste community, while also requesting for action to be taken against the church authorities and evangelists, for their attempts to proselytize in the area.
Church pastors abusing & trying to attack SC woman for protesting against unauthorized church construction by occupying the land where they have been staying for 15 years in small tents. https://t.co/y1dXPx0I2F pic.twitter.com/GowVP9pTfs
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) June 29, 2020
Another similar incident in the Moolasthanam Agraharam village of Godavari district has come to light. It is reported that a church was forcefully constructed in the village that has only Hindus living there. The villagers of the Moolathanam Agraharam had filed an RTI with the local authorities. The RTI reply stated that no permission was given for the construction of the Church. The order issued by the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Department of Andhra Pradesh mandated that construction of any religious place of worship can be permitted only after obtaining the due permission from the District Collector provided none of the neighbours object.
However, the Church obtained no such permission. The villagers then approached all levels administration from Village Administrative Officer to District Collector but their pleas to stop the Church construction fell on deaf ears.
Later, the villagers sat on a hunger strike to stop the construction of the illegal church. However, the local police officials started harassing the villagers, who were often called to the police station and threatened with filing of criminal cases if they did not stop their protests.
The villagers have now written to National Human Rights Commission in their last hope to get justice. They have sought the intervention of NHRC, CM of Andhra Pradesh, District Collector of East Godavari and District Superintendent of Police to take action against the illegal construction of the Church. They had said in their letter “Not even considering our complaints and targeting us for raising our issues is nothing but suppressing our fundamental ‘Right to Equality’ which is guaranteed by Constitution of India”
Andhra Pradesh: Locals write to NHRC after state authorities fail to act against illegal church construction in East Godavari District – Report via @OpIndia_com #Note: In Title, read it as 'East Godavari' instead of 'Kadapa'.https://t.co/LOhthPY48K
— Legal Rights Protection Forum (@lawinforce) July 11, 2020
(Source: Kathir News, OpIndia)