‘Astonished by state of affairs’: High Court seeks to know steps taken by govt for ‘dignified last rites’

A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif S Doctor was hearing a PIL by lawyer Shamsher Ahmed Shaikh and two other residents of Govandi area, seeking additional Sunni Muslim cemetery in Govandi-Deonar arwa, citing shortage of space in existing cemeteries.

The PIL pointed out that there were three locations that were proposed for an additional cemetery. One was right next to an existing burial ground in Deonar, the other was behind Rafiq Nagar, which was a dumping ground, and the third was about eight kilometres away from the heart of the population of Govandi, located at Anik village.
On August 22, the court pulled up the state and civic authorities for “lackadaisical attitude” in the matter.

The BMC filed an affidavit through Additional Municipal Commissioner (Western Suburb) Sudhakar Shinde. In respect of the existing Rafiq Nagar cemetery, the civic body stated that it is searching for a suitable alternative location for the reason that the plot is filled with about 30-metre high heap of municipal solid waste.

“We are astonished to note the stand of the Corporation for the reason that at the first place, if the plot earmarked / reserved for the cemetery was already filled up with 30-metre high solid municipal waste, why at all was it reserved for the cemetery. While reserving a particular plot for some particular use, its suitability for the purpose for which it is reserved should be prime consideration for the authorities,” the bench noted.

The court noted that as per submissions in the affidavit, it was “clear that the plot was not suitable to be reserved for the cemetery”. It noted the plot at Rafiq Nagar, which was reserved in May, last year was not suitable and based on the report of the Solid Waste Management Department, the BMC realised that cleaning the heap of waste will cost around Rs 200 crore. “However, though more than one-and-half-years have lapsed since then, the corporation’s search for an alternative plot is not complete. We cannot appreciate such a state of affairs,” the HC noted.

The Court had earlier asked the BMC to inform about steps taken to acquire land owned by the Oswal Agro Mills Ltd (earlier known as Union Carbide India Ltd) in Anik Village in Chembur area for the cemetery. However, the bench noted that the affidavit reflected “no serious effort” by the civic body in that regard.

The bench directed the BMC commissioner to depute a responsible officer to verify the current position of burial grounds and inform the court about the same.

The bench will hear the PIL next on September 25.