U’khand to start verification drive to prevent entry of outsiders: CM
DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government will soon begin a drive to verify the people living in the state and ensure that outsiders, who are capable of fomenting trouble, are not allowed inside, chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said on Tuesday.
“Our state should remain peaceful. Our state’s ‘dharma sanskriti’ (religious traditions) should remain protected. The state government will soon begin a verification drive. It will try verifying those who have not been verified properly. No such people should come here because of whom the peace in the state may get disrupted,” Dhami told reporters here.
The chief minister made the remark when asked about demands of seers in Haridwar to prohibit entry of non-Hindus to Char Dham shrines. The Char Dham shrines are referred to as four pilgrimage sites - Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
While Dhami did not mention any community or the Char Dham shrines, the Congress claimed that his remark was a “matter of concern”.
“As far as I know, Muslims and Christians don’t visit Char Dham shrines. I don’t know what he wants to say by making such a statement? What he is saying is really a matter of concern,” senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat said.
In a letter to Dhami on April 17, Shankaracharya Parishad, a council of saints, demanded that non-Hindus, particularly Muslims, be prohibited from entering Char Dham Shrines.
The letters came days after the country witnessed instances of communal violence on Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti in several states.
Head of the Shankaracharya Parishad Swami Anand Swarup in the letter to chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had pointed out that non-Hindus in name of occupation and trade are settling down in several holy places of the state. He had said, “Since the ancient era, Char Dham pilgrimage has been sacred and are places of worshipping for Hindus. In the Himalayan state, entry of non-Hindus is a matter of concern on the pretext of employment and settling down here. The recent rise in crime cases with subsequent involvement of non-Hindus indicates a future threat from such people to the religious-spiritual aura of the state.
It is not for the first that such issues have been raised in the state. In September last year, while expressing concerns over reported demographic changes in certain areas and possible attempts to disrupt communal harmony in the state, the Uttarakhand government had issued an order, directing the state director general of police (DGP), all district magistrates and senior superintendents of police to constitute district level committees, prepare a list of “outsiders” having criminal background and keep tab on those involved in “illegal land deals”.
The order had stated that “due to unprecedented rise in population in certain areas of the state, the demography of those areas has been majorly affected…And due to this demographic change, members of certain community are forced to migrate from those areas. Also, there are possibilities that the communal harmony in those areas may be disturbed.”
The order had also stated that “A list of all such people should be made who have a criminal background and are living in Uttarakhand. A verification of their profession and domicile status should be done to make their records. The DMs should also monitor the illegal land dealings in their districts and check whether someone is selling his land out of fear or pressure. If it is found so, then they should stop it and take strict action against those responsible for it”. BJP leader from Rudraprayag, Ajendra Ajay, had also written to the chief minister in July last year, alleging increasing instances of “land jihad” in the state. “I had urged Dhami that concrete steps should be taken to check this “land-jihad” as people from the state are migrating to other states and people of a certain community from are migrating to hilly areas of the state, which is resulting in demographic changes here,” he had said.