New Delhi, Jul 30 (PTI) There are 179 illegal religious structures on platforms and yards across all zonal railways, minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed Parliament on Friday. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Vaishnaw said these structures are in the form of temples, mosques, and dargahs (shrines) and have existed since long.

"There are 179 illegal religious structures existing on railway platforms and yards across all zonal railways. These structures have been recorded and monitoring is done regularly to ensure that no further expansion/extension takes place,” he said.

“Efforts to remove these illegal religious structures from all station platforms/yards have been taken by the railway administration along with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) with the assistance of local administration and Government Railway Police (GRP)," he added.

According to the minister, the railway administration often faces public agitation in removal of the illegal religious structures. Being a law and order issue, the encroachments are difficult to remove without the cooperation of the state government which is found lacking in most cases, he said.

"Further, the Railways also makes efforts to amicably settle the issue by persuading the members of the religious structure committee to shift the location of their religious structures to other places outside of railway areas. With strict vigilance and monitoring, further proliferation or mushrooming of these illegal religious structures has been prevented," he said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)