There’s a temple and a mosque. And then there’s a school. They have all come in the way of a flyover. A flyover that was supposed to be complete in June 2010. The part of the school that was obstructing the flyover has been done away with; the mosque and temple, though, continue to exist. The flyover is a work in progress. It has been for almost six years now.

This is the story of Pul Bangash, a busy commercial hub, in northwest Delhi, and a flyover connecting Karol Bagh and St Stephen’s Hospital that is supposed to pass through the area. But it could be a story of urban development in general in the country, where 100-year old “slums” are razed to the ground in one strike of the bulldozer, but entire projects are diverted/ suspended/postponed because no one wants to “hurt” religious sentiments.

Shivlal Kakkar is not quite amused when I wake him up from his siesta but then Kakkar has not been amused for sometime now. Last year, in September, a significant portion of his chemical shop was demolished as authorities claimed it was obstructing a flyover. The shop, Kakkar claims, had existed since 1958. “The floor above the shop, which used to be my home, was completely destroyed,” he says. According to Kakkar, he has also not received consummate compensation yet.

Kakkar’s shop (and formerly home too) shares a wall with a mosque. Both places used to skirt the main road till last year. Now, Kakkar’s shop is at least 20 feet away from the road. The mosque, though, stands where it always did. “If two adjacent structures were blocking the flyover, it is only fair both are demolished,” says Kakkar.

Kakkar tells me that when he had renovated his house a few years ago, they came across bricks from 1929. “The mosque was built by the same man who had constructed this building, so it is likely that the mosque dates back to 1929,” says Kakkar.

Dinesh Kumar runs a dry-cleaning enterprise a few blocks away from Thakkar’s establishment. Kumar’s shop was also cut down by more than half to make way for the flyover. He claims that he was given a little over 10 per cent of the market rate as compensation. “The market rate is Rs 5 lakh/metre here but we’ve been given only Rs 55,000/metre and almost 60 per cent people have not got any compensation at all.”

According to Kumar, more than 200 properties in the area have been affected. “We were told that we’d be given space in Model Town but nothing of that sort has happened yet,” he tells me.

When I contacted North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) director of public relations and information Y.S. Mann for his comments, he told me that the NDMC has released Rs 70 crore as compensation amount to the Land Acquisition Collector (LAC) of the area. “We have released the funds, now it is the duty of the LAC to disburse the compensation, “ Mann said. The LAC was not available for remarks.

Kumar, unlike Kakkar though, is not particularly aggrieved by the fact that his shop, which was at the same level as the mosque, was brought down, while the mosque was allowed to stay. “The mosque has been here for a long time now,” he says.

Nooruddin, mulazim (caretaker) at the mosque, asks us to either take off our shoes or step down the stairs, when we knock at the door to his small room next to the stairs leading up to the mosque. “We have been assured the flyover will be diverted and the mosque will stay.”

Nooruddin tells me that two to three people work for the mosque when I ask him how many people the mosque provided employment to. “But more than 200 people come every day, five times a day, to offer prayers,” he quips. The mosque, according to Nooruddin, is 100 years old.

Jugal Kishore is the head priest at the Hanuman Temple in Pul Bangash. The temple is bang in middle of the road the flyover is supposed to pass over. Only the first floor, however, has been demolished - the ground floor (where the main shrine is located) is intact. “The temple, we were told, would stay where it is and when the first floor was demolished, we were guaranteed compensation to rebuild it,” says Kishore. Kishore, however, says that no compensation has been given in lieu of the damaged portion.

Kishore tells me that he is not interested in moving to another location, as offered by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. “This is the oldest temple in this area – you could ask anyone here. The idols cannot just be moved like that,” he says. Kishore says he has since been assured that the temple would not be touched anymore and would continue to stay where it is. The temple, according to Kishore, employs five people.

At around 200 metres - it seemed like two kilometres in the blistering Delhi heat - from the mosque is a government-run primary school. A portion of the school, like the temple and the mosque, too was obstructing the flyover. The same courtesy, however, was not extended to the school. The part of the school that came in the way of the flyover was brought down.

An executive of Dinesh Chandra R Infracon Private Limited, the private company responsible for constructing the flyover, says the idea is always to avoid demolishing religious places. “We try not to mess with religious institutions as much as possible,” says the executive who is not willing to be named. He tells me that the flyover was “re-aligned” in order to not affect the mosque. He refused to comment on the demolition of the school.

The courts of the country have time and again ruled that encroachment of religious structures on public space should be dealt without prejudice. A Supreme Court bench, in September 2009, rejecting a mercy plea by the Karnataka Wakf Board regarding the demolition of a mosque said “we aren’t going to differentiate between temple or mosque if it is illegal or unauthorised”. The court in the same ruling stated that “unauthorised construction of religious nature which had already taken place shall be reviewed on case-to-case basis and appropriate action shall be taken in every matter as expeditiously as possible”.

In another order in June 2013, the Supreme Court said that the “time has come to ban construction of temples, mosques, churches and gurudwaras on public places abutting roads which significantly restrict movement of vehicles leading to long traffic snarls”.

Governments across parties, though, have been circumspect in dealing with illegal religious constructions. In 2008, the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat state government had to suspend a temple demolition drive following protests by Hindu organisations. The Modi government in Gujarat had demolished 265 temples till 2008 before the drive was halted.

In 2011, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation failed to carry out the demolition of an unauthorised temple inside a housing society in spite of the Bombay High Court categorically directing it to do so.

Separating the temple and mosque is a huge mound of rubble – which earlier used to be a bustling commercial complex. Most shopkeepers, according to accounts of local residents, could not cope with the sudden demolition drive and completely went out of business. As Kumar tells me: “People lost everything they had. I know at least two people who went bankrupt as a result of the demolition drive and died waiting for compensation to arrive.” But no religious sentiments were hurt in the construction of this flyover.

Every government comes with the promise of “development”. Every political analyst and commentator says the days of religious vote banks are over and only development matters. But clearly only when it involves doing away with agricultural land, low-income housing clusters or even schools. No one’s touching the gods for now.