Mumbai, July 10 -- The Maharashtra government will enact a strict law to curb cases of religious conversion and also demolish unauthorised churches that have come up across the state, especially in tribal districts, in the next six months, revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said in the state assembly on Wednesday. The announcement was made after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Anup Agrawal, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Sanjay Kute, and Gopichand Padalkar alleged that tribals were being converted to Christianity through illegal churches built using foreign funding for the promotion of the religion. They also demanded a mechanism to bar converted tribals from availing benefits under welfare schemes meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs). The MLAs did not specify how many such illegal churches had been built or where exactly the funding came from. Agarwal claimed that according to an RTI reply, the number of illegal churches in tribal districts such as Palghar and Nandurbar is mounting stupendously. Villages with a population of around 2,000 have half a dozen churches, he said, adding that there are illegal churches in 199 gram panchayats in Dhule alone. The conversion is done through threats and luring through medical help, he alleged. Mungantiwar claimed that 1,515 organisations involved in religious conversion activities received foreign funding last year, which has resulted in the reduction of the Hindu population in the state over the years. He did not mention the source of the information. In the budget session of the state assembly, the Ballarpur MLA had moved a private member's bill seeking to make forced conversions a cognisable offence. The bill has not been tabled yet in the assembly. Kute demanded the constitution of a review committee to ensure that converted tribals do not avail of benefits under welfare schemes meant for STs. The BJP MLAs also pressed for a strict law to prohibit religious conversion, similar to those in 12 other states and countries, such as Pakistan, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. In reply, revenue minister Bawankule said that the illegal churches would be removed in the next six months. We intend to bring a stricter law to curb the cases of conversion, and it will be brought after due deliberation," he added....