Fifty-seven temples, 27 gurdwaras, 10 churches and seven mosques — that’s the number of religious places for which provisions had been made in the UT. The statistics maintained by the Administration, however, say there are 408 places of worship in the city. Needless to say, 307 of them are unauthorised structures.

With religious sentiments attached to the issue, neither the Administration, nor the Municipal Corporation has been able to remove these structures, which have been earning money in the name of God.

Sources in the Administration said a report prepared in 2006 indicated that around 665 acres of prime land had been thus encroached upon in the city with a total area of 114 square kilometres. According to the statistics, there are 240 unauthorised temples, 56 gurdwaras, six churches and five mosques in the city.

In December 2005, the UT Administration had recommended relocation of all unauthorised religious structures. Subsequently, a sub-group on “encroachment and unauthorised religious structures” was formed. It was proposed that the managements of such religious organisations be offered alternate land at concessional rates near the sites, where labour colonies were proposed to be shifted under a rehabilitation scheme.

In its report to the Administration, the sub-group recommended that residents’ welfare associations should be associated with the mechanism to check unauthorised encroachment on government land. It said officials should be taken to task for dereliction in duty and a task force be constituted. The Administration, however, failed to implement the recommendations and get the unauthorised structures removed or shifted.

While the issue had been discussed several times during the Administrator’s Advisory Council meetings, the authorities have not been able to nail the offenders and formulate a policy to demolish such structures or provide alternate land.