In order to protect the property, the parishioners and people from other communities held a silent protest on Tuesday.
Members of different communities have come together to save a beloved Kandivli church. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had sent a notice to the parishioners of Our Lady of Remedy Church, saying 7 meters of the church's graveyard will be demolished due to the proposed widening of the SV Road.
In order to protect the property, the parishioners and people from other communities held a silent protest on Tuesday.
Lawrence Fernandes, deanery councilor of the Borivli Deanery, Bombay Catholic Sabha, said parishioners had earlier suggested to BMC that the road could be widened from the other side. To which, deputy municipal commissioner Ashok Kaire said, "It is practically impossible for us to widen the road from the other side, as it will again become a sharp turn, which it is at the moment." He added, "We are ready to give them developmental rights in return. If this doesn't work for the parishioners, we will have to approach the court."
Fernandes, on the other hand, said, "We have already filed a writ petition. We are hoping to get justice. We do not have a problem with development but we have a problem with demolition of our holy property. We were glad that a lot of people from other communities, and parishioners from other areas of the city, also came forward to be a part of our protest."
"On Thursday, the BMC officials came to raze a portion of the land but we didn't allow them. The church and the cemetery are protected under the Heritage List. The church has, on multiple occasions, given away its land to BMC for development. But now, the parishioners feel this is exploitation of a peace-loving minority community."
The portion under dispute is 7m of the graveyard and a cross within the compound boundary of the 400-year-old church. The BMC notice issued to the church is under section 299 (acquisition of open land or of land occupied by platforms within the regular line of a street) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, which the parishioners are challenging.
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