ITANAGAR, Jun 10: The Arunachal Christian Forum (ACF) has rejected the report of the three-member committee on the Tawang church issue.
The committee, which was headed by Sports Minister Mama Natung, has recommended shifting the church to another location, claiming that the land has been acquired by the government.
Addressing media persons at the press club here on Friday, ACF president Toko Teki denied that the land where the church was built is government land.
“Our church isn’t in any of the places listed under the Supreme Court’s order, ie, neither it is on a public street, public park, nor other public places. It is far from any public utility places,” he said.
Teki also said that the government did not provide the full report. “Only the operational part was given; that, too, with only two pages,” he said.
He urged the state government to find another mechanism to solve the issue.
“If not, then our protest rally scheduled on 18 June will be continued,” Teki said.
ACF secretary-general Tarh Miri fervently appealed to the state government to “adopt a secular viewpoint” and allow them to set up a church in Tawang.
Since the issue began on 6 October, 2020, when the church’s pastor was arrested for ‘illegally constructing the church’, the ACF has maintained that “repeated applications for land allotment for the plot of land were never processed by the Tawang district administration.”
