Navi Mumbai mosque awaits state decision

Two weeks after the Bombay high court expressed its displeasure over the controversy related to an upcoming mosque in a Hindu locality in Nerul, Navi Mumbai, the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) on Wednesday informed the court that it was waiting for the state home department’s decision on the matter.

Sumitra Kadu, a resident of the area, filed a PIL saying the 1042.27 sqm plot in sector 50E, Nerul, was reserved for religious use before 2004. But Cidco handed over the plot to a Muslim trust for construction of a mosque, Kadu said in the PIL.

The court was told that there was not even a single Muslim family within a radius of 1 km from the site. Only 331 Muslim families live beyond the 1 km radius. “If the mosque is allowed there is every possibility of encroachment on public open space in the locality by Muslim encroachers, which may badly affect the development of the city,” according to the PIL.

“This is a manifestation of clear intolerance of the society,” the court said.

Reema Dikshit, Cidco’s chief social service officer, said in an affidavit that the Navi Mumbai police commissioner had given a no-objection certificate in February 2008 for the mosque’s construction, and the urban development department too had approved it.

But the police commissioner changed his stand and wrote to Cidco authorities on September 17, 2009, that local people were against the construction of a mosque and it could lead to a law and order problem. The PIL has been filed with an intention to create communal disharmony in the area, the affidavit said.