Honorary secretary of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) U Banerjee dashed off a letter to BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte after the civic body gave Reliance Communications the go-ahead to construct a network tower at St Xavier's Ground in Parel.
Honorary secretary of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA) U Banerjee dashed off a letter to BMC commissioner Sitaram Kunte after the civic body gave Reliance Communications the go-ahead to construct a network tower at St Xavier's Ground in Parel.
On Saturday, representatives from Reliance met with MDFA officials to seek permission to construct the tower. However, the officials refused to grant them the same. "Last Thursday, officials from Reliance entered the grounds and started taking measurements for the tower. Some MDFA officials present at the time refrained them from doing so and said they would have to take permission of the managing committee. We met on Saturday and told them clearly that we don't want any of those cellular towers on our grounds. We even got some representatives of an NGO that studies the ill-effects of radiation to speak to them," Banerjee told dna.
After representatives of Reliance said they would be back in a week, Banerjee decided to get help from a local citizens group. "We've got local organisation on our side. The local Congress party also lent its support. We believe that radiation from such towers could be extremely hazardous for the youth that come to play here every day."
The MDFA has six divisions and contains approximately 350+ clubs. That's about 7,700 people playing there each season. Not to forget the local kids that come to play/practise on the ground everyday and the schools that organise their sports day there. The ground belongs to the BMC and MDFA is the caretaker.
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