Seeking to take over part of its century-old cemetery for road widening, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation issued a notice to St. Peters Seaside church Bandra
Mumbai: The century-old St. Peter’s Seaside Cemetery in Bandra (West) has received notification from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that the property on which the cemetery is located will be taken over by the civic organization for a proposed road widening project. The Bandra Bene Israel Jewish Cemetery, which is located across the street, received a similar notification from BMC officials.
A day after the parishioners, political parties, and activists protested against the BMC notice, seeking the take over 9.15 sq. feet of the St. Peters’ church Bandra Seaside cemetery. The civic body issued a withdrawal of the notice.
The St Peter’s cemetery was constructed in 1907 and is located at Kadeshwari Road in Bandra reclamation, which is an extension of Chapel Road. The cemetery houses over 475 graves. The community members on January 6, Friday evening, organized a public demonstration in order to chalk out an action pan for the turndown of the notice.
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Fr Frazer Mascarenhas, parish priest, members of the Bombay Catholic Sabha, activists from the watchdog foundation were among the 700 participants of the gathering. BCS president Dolphy D’Souza was the coordinator of the public gathering.
“We all have religious and emotional sentiments attached to these graves,” Fr Frazer Mascarenhas said while addressing the gathering. In addition to this he also said, “the objective behind the notice involves commercial interests.”
Furthermore, Dolphy D’souza shamed the conduct of the civic body officials saying, “they want to disturb our resting brothers and sisters, not an inch of our cemetery land will be given to them.”
With the objective of reflecting solidarity and unity, BCS President Dolphy announced, “we will be holding a candlelight prayer procession from the church to the cemetery at 5:30PM on Tuesday, January 10. The procession aims at demanding the permanent elimination of the issue by the BMC.
Post the temporary withdrawal of the notice by the BMC, the parish priest said, “The withdrawal has taken place under pressure, this shouldn’t come up again.”
(Hw News Exclusive Captures From The Bombay Catholic Sabha Meet)
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