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MUMBAI, INDIA, November 5, 2003: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is trying to control the damage done to its image after people protested BMC’s decision to demolish illegal shrines in Mumbai. The BMC has now come up with a new proposal. Mumbai BJP president Bhai Girkar met the BMC commissioner Karun Shrivastava to oppose the demolition of street shrines. “Some shrines are over a hundred years old. They came up much before the road expansion plans. They must be protected,” says Bhai Girkar. “The BMC now agrees that its late-night operation to demolish shrines is a mistake and will be stopped. It also agrees that the list of illegal shrines submitted in the court is incorrect and it is going to submit an affidavit to this effect in the high court,” says Prabhakar Shinde, leader of the house, BMC. But the BMC says its operation to demolish illegal shrines will go on. The BMC has demolished 297 illegal shrines so far, including 290 Hindu temples, four Christian crosses, two mosques and a Buddhist shrine. This follows a High Court order issued on October 27. City corporators now find themselves caught between an irate public and a new government order that says corporators found interfering with the demolitions will lose their post.

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