Mumbai: Poisar church parishioners take protest to BMC ward office

Aggrieved with the BMC proposal to remove the heritage cross and portion of the graveyard for expansion of SV Road at Poisar in Kandivali the members of Catholic community protested outside the local BMC office on SaturdayAround 500 people marched from Our Lady of Remedy Church in Kandivali to the RSouth BMC office as the community members were against the idea of dislodging the cross and parting away with the graveyard area Protestors were holding placards with message to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMClsquoWe are the BMC ndash Boulder Mighty Catholicsrsquo read one of the placards while another one said lsquoStanding hand in hand to protect every inch of our landrsquoDolphy Drsquosouza from Save our Land SOUL one of the supporting groups said ldquoThe protest is against the unjust demand of the BMC to demolish the heritage cross a portion of the graveyard of Our Lady of Remedy which has a history of over 450 years and some of the other church property We Christians are soft targets and so the politicians and BMC officials are exploiting usrdquoThough the rally was peaceful as the protestors reached the RSouth BMC ward office they started shouting slogans like lsquoBMC ki dadagiri nahi chalegi nahi chalegirsquo and lsquoAjoy Mehta hai hairsquoA delegation of the protestors were allowed inside the ward office to meet the civic officials but the members were upset as senior civic officials the deputy municipal commissioner DMC and assistant municipal commissioner AMC were not there for the meeting It was the Executive Engineer RSouth Sunil Pabikar who attended the delegation members and heard their say on the issueldquoDMC and AMC have gone for a top level meetingrdquo Pabikar told the protestors He further informed the delegation that since the subject is very sensitive it would be appropriate to meet higher civic authorities and possibly municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta to get the subject addressedWith civic elections scheduled early next year the community is likely to take up the issue during the polls and their anger could well be reflected in votes Alfi Quinny from Poisar village said ldquoWe may be a minority but collectively we make up 20 per cent of the electorate and a difference of 500 votes can make or break a candidate The tide is rising against those in power who are crushing us in the name of development The Poisar church makes everyone passing this road say a prayer on the curses of the dead nothing good can come aboutrdquoMeanwhile Godfrey Pimenta from Watchdog Foundation said ldquoWe did a study of various points on SV Road from Mulji Nagar Junction in Kandivali to Kamal Kunj in Goregaon the road width is not more than 60 feet anywhere Why is there a need for a 90 feet road near Poisar Church By taking a part of the graveyard the dead will be desecrated There is no burial ground nearby and many have to go as far as Oshiwara this existing one is also being deniedrdquoldquoWe need to thank the BMC and politicians for teaching our community to come on the streets We have learnt to agitate with protests like this only because of them Todayrsquos morcha was only a trailer if the BMC does not back off we will have an even bigger agitation We will have an agitation at Azad Maidan soon and also try to get an appointment with Ajoy Mehta to discuss this issue as well as the new Development Plan DP which has again targeted us by showing our properties as something elserdquo said Drsquosouza