In Kaprada village of Valsad, Gujarat, local residents have protested against construction of illegal church. As per reports, when the village panchayat did not allow formation of society, some superseded the panchayat and went ahead to form a committee to oversee the construction. In the said matter, local residents have registered protest and along with the Sarpanch, have submitted a memorandum at the Collector’s office and demanded strict action.
According to local residents, not a single villagers has been registered as a person who follows Christianity. Despite that, superseding the Gram Panchayat, a church was constructed. A copy of the memorandum given by villagers to the Collector is with OpIndia.
As per the memorandum, one Chandarbhai Chaudhary, a local villager, works in local forest department and has claimed that he is Christian. However, he has not registered himself as a Christian in the government office. Local villagers believe he is responsible for the construction of the church.
Local residents have also complained that poor villagers are being lured into converting to Christianity. They are being told wrong and abusive things about Hindu gods and goddesses and lured into conversion to Christianity. Hence, churches have sprung across villages. Villagers have also alleged that most of these churches are constructed illegally on government and forest department lands.
Local residents have also raised concerns regarding the funding for construction of such churches. They also said that while there is no official record of Christian residents as per census, in recent times some people have converted to Christianity. In July this year, 90 people of 20 families had converted to Christianity.
Forced religious conversion in South Gujarat
Earlier we had reported that in the month of October, in Songadh village of Tapi district, an ancient Hindu temple was removed and a Church was constructed there. When Hindus went to offer prayers during Navratri, the Christian mob had stopped them and a scuffle had broken out. Thereafter, police had intervened and allowed Hindus to offer prayers there. You can read our detailed report in Gujarati here.
Note: This report was originally published in Gujarati. You can read it here.
