Christians in Mumbai has strongly objected to the civic corporation’s
move to classify crosses on public properties as illegal structures.
“The
entire blame for the mess rests squarely with the civic legal
department,” said Godfrey Pimenta, vice-president of the Bombay East
Indian Association.
“It is unimaginable that protected religious
structures, which are in existence even prior to the birth of the Bombay
Municipal Corporation (BMC) and are listed as heritage structures, are
now suddenly deemed illegal by the BMC,” he said.
There is
nothing more blasphemous than the present categorization done by the
committee that has labeled almost every religious structure within the
BMC limits as illegal.
Pimenta said if the government could
accord status of protected structure to residential and commercial
premises in existence prior to January 1, 1995 and subsequently extended
to January 1, 2000 then why the same cannot be granted to all religious
structures.
Pimenta alleged that the municipal commissioner had
been kept in the dark about the legality of the structures and hence the
notice of December 28 terming all structures as encroachments.