Mumbai, April 19: At least 200 worship places, which were declared illegal by the Bombay high court in 2003 and subsequently demolished by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), have sprung up again.
In 2003, the Bombay high court, hearing a public interest litigation filed by social activist Bhagwanji Rayani, had ordered demolition of 1,300 religious places of the total 2,000-odd; to its credit, the civic authorities are believed to have carried out the order.
Now, in the last seven years the authorities seem to have been taking a divine nap as at least 15% of the demolished temples have made their way back, and not only that, according to Rayani, over 1,500 new houses of worship have come up illegally.
According to the information provided by the BMC, the civic body has not updated its list of illegal worship places, but has not demolished any such structure in the last seven years. The RTI application was filed by activist Chetan Kothari.
Swadhin Kshatriya, commissioner, BMC, said: “The ward offices monitor the status of the illegal constructions in their wards from time to time. I do not have the information offhand, but will verify the status of any reconstruction of the illegal structures.”
A cursory survey by this reporter of the return of the worship places revealed a mixed bag of tactics:
In the municipal ‘D’ Ward (Tardeo, Walkeshwar), few deities have reappeared along with new structures. Sai Mitra Mandal’s Sai Mandir and a temple near Veena Apartment in Walkeshwar have been reconstructed, and purportedly legal in their new abode. Laxman Tiwari of Sai Baba Mandir on Walkeshwar Road said though the temple was razed in 2003, it is now legal as the mandir has been accommodated in the compound of an adjacent “makaan”.
The list of demolished constructions provided by L ward has record of a Rameshwar Hindu Mandir. However, a spacious mandir still persists on the location with a steady stream of worshipers.
A Sai temple managed by Bal Mitra Mandal near Swadeshi Mill in Prem Nagar was demolished in 2003. A member of the Mandal said that they never made an attempt to re-construct the mandir or set up another idol of the Sai, though the chabutara (sanctum sanctorum) is intact.
A temple outside Marathi Vidnyan Parishad at Chunabhatti was part of the demolition drive in 2003. Nearly 100 sq ft construction has been converted into an office of an utsav mandal and a leprosy society. “The Sai idol was shifted to another place in the neighbouring enclosure and the office is now used for a social cause,” a resident said.
A Hanuman mandir on station road and two temples in old police colony in Vile Parle East have been reconstructed.
–Agencies