Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi. Photo: X/@sanghaviharsh

By The Wire Staff

New Delhi: Gujarat home minister Harsh Sanghavi said on Wednesday that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government has demolished 108 mazars in its crackdown on ‘illegal encroachment’. He also claimed in the assembly that chief minister Bhupendra Patel was sending a bulldozer across the state to deal with such structures.

“Today, the point mentioned by Amitbhai [the BJP MLA from Ellisbridge]… He said that a derasar was removed in Jamalpur. Now, Dada’s [Bhupendra Patel’s] bulldozer is moving around in every nook and corner of the state so that no temple or devsthan can be removed while hatching a conspiracy. Nobody knows where will it [the bulldozer] go,” he said, according to Hindustan Times.

The “sudden” appearances of mazars was a “conspiracy”, the home minister claimed in his speech meant to seek approval of the budgetary allocation for his ministry. “In Uparkot, it was not known where (and when) all mazars were built. How can it be built suddenly?” he said.

“In all, 108 mazars have been demolished (in the state) and the state’s properties have been opened… The encroachment around Somnath has been removed. This bulldozer of Dada can enter a 20-ft wide street and an 80-m wide road,” he continued.

This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.