The Allahabad High Court has expressed serious concern over what it described as the growing influence of a builder-politician-bureaucrat nexus in shaping urban development across India’s major religious cities, observing that unauthorized construction has become an organized and politically enabled phenomenon rather than a consequence of poverty or ignorance.
The Bench of Justice Vinod Diwakar observed that cities such as Mathura, Varanasi, Ayodhya, Prayagraj and Vrindavan have witnessed a particularly alarming pattern of illegal development owing to the enormous commercial value of land surrounding places of religious importance.
The Court noted that unauthorized constructions in these cities have proliferated over several decades due to institutional complacency, regulatory capture and political patronage. It remarked that such violations are often driven by organized economic interests operating with political support, rather than by isolated instances of unlawful construction.
According to the Court, India already has an adequate legal framework to deal with illegal construction, but what is lacking is the institutional resolve to enforce those laws against influential and well-connected entities. It stressed that unless authorities act fearlessly and impartially, cities of immense cultural and religious significance would continue to suffer irreversible damage.
Warning against unchecked urbanisation, Justice Diwakar observed that if planning norms continue to be sacrificed to accommodate the interests of builders and officials, future generations would inherit cities whose historic and cultural character could never be restored. The Court remarked that the true legacy of the present generation would be judged not only by the infrastructure it created but also by the heritage it allowed to be destroyed.
The observations were made while hearing a petition concerning an allegedly illegal ashram constructed in the flood-prone area of Vrindavan. During the proceedings, the Court also took suo motu note of the recent stampedes reported in Uttar Pradesh and questioned whether temple towns were being developed with adequate attention to public safety and infrastructure.
Expressing particular concern over Mathura, the Court criticised the State’s decision to prepare a master plan for only a ten-year period despite the city’s immense religious, historical and cultural importance. It observed that pilgrimage centres such as Mathura, Ayodhya, Varanasi and Chitrakoot require a distinct planning framework and cannot be treated on par with ordinary urban centres.
The Bench further underscored the need for scientific approaches to crowd management, noting that Uttar Pradesh hosts some of the world’s largest religious gatherings, including the Kumbh Mela, yet lacks any structured academic programme dedicated to the study of crowd behaviour and mass gathering safety.
To address this gap, the Court recommended that the State institutionalise crowd science as an academic discipline and establish a dedicated Centre of Excellence for Crowd Science, Mass Gathering Safety and Urban Risk Management.
Additionally, the Court suggested that the State examine the feasibility of creating a statutory urban design body on the lines of the Delhi Urban Art Commission. Such a commission, it said, could guide the government and development authorities on issues relating to urban aesthetics, environmental sustainability and planned development in historically and religiously significant cities.
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