Mumbai: BMC wrongly listed Bandra cross, says BJP chief Ashish Shelar

BJP chief Ashish Shelar

Following BMC's demolition of a 122-year-old holy cross on Bazaar Road in Bandra on Saturday, Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar on Tuesday met irked members of the Catholic community and other officials. Post the meeting he said the structure had been wrongly listed for demolition, due to lack of proper homework on it.

After the demolition of the cross, BMC officials had stated that the structure was listed in the B category (shrines that interfere with city's development plan) of their list of illegal religious structures and that they were acting according to Bombay High Court's directive to demolish illegal religious structures.

"The clear takeaway from today's meeting is that the B category was finalised in 2011-12 without proper homework," said Shelar. "That is how the structure came to be wrongly listed. The people who have wrongly listed the said structure need to be penalised, which is why an inquiry into the matter has been initiated."

Tweeting about the meeting, Shelar also outlined that the way forward would include: a month to move all religious structures in the list for possible demolition, re-examination of papers and documents of demolitions done so far, installation of CCTV cameras at all religious structures within two months and fulfilment of demand for a Christian cemetery at Malad.