BMC panel opposed to cemetery
Urban Development Department directive includes no-development zone area in residential zone
Sayli Udas
The BMC Infrastructure Committee members are opposed to the move of marking of a 5,000 square-metre area of land in Aarey village for a Muslim cemetery.
A directive of the Urban Development Department has marked the area, a no-development zone, for the purpose including it in the residential zone.
A volley of questions were raised regarding the move at the Infrastructure Committee meeting on Tuesday.
The members are of the opinion that although there is a scarcity of space for crematoriums or burial grounds all over the city a non-development land need not be touched for creating them. “The proposed site is around one-and-a-half acres and a wide green open space. One does not understand the need to de-reserve this land for the purpose,” said Ashish Shelar, BJP Member of the Infrastructure Committee opposing the move. He also explained that a green open space need not be disturbed for this purpose, increasing the congestion in Aarey Colony, and that the government should understand it.
The primary contention voiced in the meeting was that the area, which is a part of the 4,000 acre of green parkland located at Goregaon East, does not have a considerable Muslim population.
It has been alleged that this proposed modification in the Development Plan of Mumbai is either a pre-electoral move to garner minority votes or the land will be de-reserved and subsequently used for slum development purposes. A decision on this move will be taken after a visit of the committee members to the proposed site, due next week.
The demand for a cemetery in the area came five years ago when its Muslim residents — 75 per cent of the 307 tabela owners — said that they had to travel for 25 minutes and spend money to take their dead to the nearest cemetery situated at Somwari Bazaar in the West of Aarey Colony.
“Also, the cemetery at Malad is needed to be opened every three months to meet our needs,’’ said Feroz Patel, a tabela owner at Aarey Colony.
Maulana Mustakeen Azmi, Chairman of Jamat-E-Ulma-E-Maharashtra, said that there is a need for a cemetery but not particularly in that area.
Non-governmental organisation Citispace, fighting for preserving open spaces is opposing this move. It alleges that the government is piggy-backing in the name of a cemetery and will slowly use the land, modified into `residential zone’, for development purposes under slum rehabilitation development.
“This modification demanded by the UD in the city Revised Development Plan cannot happen since it is a no-development zone in toto, and eating into it will result in taking away another green space from us, which we will oppose and take to the high court,” said Neera Punj of Citispace.
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