Meeting between top cop and trustees fails to resolve dispute

17 August,2012 06:59 AM IST |   |  Priyanka Dhomse

The ongoing dispute over five and a half acres of land at Pimpleshwar Mandir near Manpada Road in Dombivli (East) shows no signs of abating.


u00a0A meeting was held on August 15 between the two warring parties - the temple's trustees and IPS officer Mari-Lou Fernandes - in the presence of the police. However, the matter could not be resolved amicably.


Plot thickens: The temple plot over which the stiff dissention rages

The meeting continued for one and a half hours in the premises of Pimpleshwar Mandir, in the presence of joint CP Bhujangrao Shinde, and Dattatray Pandhre, senior police inspector of Manpada police station in Dombivli.


IPS officer Marie-Lou Fernandes who is one of the warring parties. Pics/Anita Anand

"We will have to go through the legal papers of both parties and the decision will be taken according to our evaluation of that," said Shinde.

Fernandes was ready for compromise by giving away the part of the plot on which the temple is located, but the trustees claim that she does not have the power to do so, as she does not have the 7/12 extract papers of the land that proves that she owns it. At present, the land is under the jurisdiction of the MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) that will decide on the matter.

"We were expecting the officials to come up with a definite decision today but they said they would need more time. We have called for a Kalyan-Dombivli bandh on Monday if a specific decision is not made by then," said Prakash Mhatre, trustee of Pimpleshwar Temple.

"The trustees want me to give my entire property to the temple, even though I am ready to give up one acre of my land to them. As far as the 7/12 extract is concerned, even the trust doesn't have any legal papers which proves their ownership of the land, as they have illegally acquired it. I am waiting for the court's decision and am ready to accept the court's decision," said Fernandes.

"I have the land agreement papers with me as a proof of my ownership of the land," added Fernandes. The Pimpleshwar Mandir has been given the status of a pilgrimage spot by the government of Maharashtra. u00a0

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