DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Tuesday responding to the queries related banning the entry of non-Hindus in the Char Dham shrines- Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri said that the state government will conduct a verification drive to check if people from outside of the state have encroached upon illegally.
“Ours state is a peaceful one and we should work towards preserving our religion and culture. We will conduct a verification drive to check if people from outside of Uttarakhand have encroached illegally,” said the CM.
He further added that there is no space for ‘encrochers’. “There is no space for encroachers, spreaders of religion based frenzy. The law will take its own course in such matters,” said CM Dhami. Last week, Swami Anand Swaroop, a seer who was part of Haridwar Dharam Sansad hate speech has written to Uttarakhand Chief Minister to ban entry of non-Hindu people in Char Dham shrines.
He also warned the CM of increasing footprints of non-Hindus in the Himalayan state. The seer had also warned that his ‘Kali Sena’ will teach a lesson to those non-Hindus who ‘violate the sanctity of the Char Dham’. Swami Anand Swaroop, one of the organizers of Dharam Sansad in Haridwar in December 2021 is also convenor of the Dharam Sansad core committee.
Last year, intelligence aganecies had alerted authorities in Uttarakhand about ‘Demographic Changes’ in certain areas of the hill state warning about these changes, especially in border districts of Udham Singh Nagar, Champawat and Pithoragarh of Kumaon disvision of the state.
All three districts share border with Nepal. Officials from Uttarakhand government told that a report was sent to the union home ministry in January 2021 citing the situation in these districts as ‘sensitive’.
In September 2021, the state government citing too much increase in population in certain areas of the state which is causing ‘Demographic Change’ resulting into ‘Migration of some communities from those areas’, issued directions to take steps to find the ‘solutuion of the problem’.
Release from the state government stated, “It has come to the notice of the government that in certain areas of the state due to too much increase in population demographic changes have occurred resulting in ‘migration by some communities from those areas’. No only this, there is also an apprehension of disturbance in communal harmony.”
However, the release did not name any community. The release further stated that the director general of police of the state, all the district magistrates and district police chiefs to take steps to find solution of the problem.
The state government had also issued instructions to form district level committees along with ‘Peace Committees. These committees will advise to find ‘solution’ of the ‘problem’ and meetings will be organized from time to time to maintain peace.
The directions had also been issued to identify people in every district of Uttarakhand who are from other states with criminal history living in the state and verify their documents as well as records.
Directions also include taking action by authorities who have forged their documents including foreigners and keeping an eye on sale of properties to see if anyone is not selling the property out of pressure or fear. Interestingly, union home ministry in an RTI reply had stated that threats to Hindus and Hinduism are ‘imaginary’ or ‘hypothetical’.
