The district administration of Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh has pressurized 11 Muslim families to sign a memorandum termed as ‘consent letter’ to vacate the houses located in the Southeast area of Gorakhnath Math Temple. The families are now being forced to vacate the houses by the local administration.
According to the government authorities, the properties are being cleared citing the security of Gorakhnath Math Temple.
The letter in Hindi says, “To abide the order of district administration to deploy police force keeping in view the security at The Gorakhnath Temple, we are giving our land and signing this document with our will. We don’t have any objections. To express our consent, we are signing this document below.”
The area in the letter is registered as Village Old Gorakhpur Tappa, Town Pargna Haveli, Tehsil Sadar District Gorakhpur.
The Gorakhnath Math is spread over an area of 52 acres, at the head of which is Yogi Adityanath, the chief minister himself.
The circular includes the names and signatures of the 11 property holders dated 28th May.
Javed Akhter, a signatory of the consent letter told The Cognate, “We have signed the letter under the pressure of the administration and other people who are willing to give their land. We were forced to sign the circular.”
Akhter is a retired engineer in Railways of India and has spent his life in the same house. This property was registered under his father’s name and was transferred to him after his father left. Now he lives with his family in the house. The last two generations of his family spent their life on this land.
He further said, “The administration has made the security of the temple a reason to grab our property. We are residing here for more than a hundred years, how our existence and houses will be a threat to the security of the temple?”
“Two police stations are also there in the area to maintain law and order, how can anyone breach Temple’s security”, he added.
The houses are located at a distance of around 30 meters from the boundary (outer foundation) of the Temple and both the communities (Hindus and Muslims) co-exist peacefully in the area.
Akhter said, “We will pursue the matter legally if the administration will try to snatch our property illegally through power. We will not leave our ancestral land like this.
Musheer Ahmad, another resident of Gorakhnath also confirmed the same.
This is not the first instance of the administration using high-handedness to vacate properties.
In May last year, Yogi Adityanath ordered the demolition of over 100 shops in the vicinity of Gorakhnath Temple. Over a hundred shops were bulldozed and razed for widening a road. One report said the shopkeepers, some of whom claimed to be in possession of the shops for 70 years, were not in favour.
As of now the matter is limited to the signatures on the so-called consent letter. No physical action has been taken yet, as told by a signatory.
