HC slams working of Delhi government’s religious committee

New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday slammed the city government's religious committee, set up to look into unauthorised religious structures built on government lands, for not functioning properly and thus delaying completion of various infrastructural projects.

Justice Manmohan said that the committee has not decided even half of the matters pending before it.

"Infrastructure projects are held up due to this. Bureaucrats do not want to do their work. I will be constrained to say that the religious committee is not doing anything and it should be disbanded," he said.

The court said there was no coordination among government agencies, and the "religious committee does not even bother to meet and when they meet, they defer the matter on one pretext or the other".

"It can't be that one hand of the government does not know what the other hand is doing. The flavor of the season is that you make an unauthorised structure and then further make a religious structure so that no one will touch it," it added.

The court was hearing a matter relating to infrastructural projects, one of which was pending since 1976, as there were several religious structures which were to be demolished for completion of the work.

"One project is stalled since 1976 because the committee has not done anything and thousands of crores are wasted. I am saying very politely, please set your house in order. Word should not go around that build a religious structure and nobody will touch you," the court remarked.