Decide on burial ground in 4 weeks, Thane civic body told

HC asks Christians to submit an application to corporation

Christian community members during the burial of 95-year-old Army man A .Jessiah in Thane on March 20.

The fight for a burial ground in Thane has heated up with the Christian community’s attempts to regularise an open plot as a cemetery. The Bombay High Court on Monday directed the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to decide in four weeks if burials can be allowed on the plot.

While community members had already carried out one burial on the plot without permissions on March 20, they had sought the court’s permission for the burial of a woman who died last week. But her funeral was carried out on Saturday as her body had started decomposing.

The court asked community members to submit an application to the TMC. Other residents in the area, who are against the plot being used as a cemetery, were also directed to submit their objections to the civic body.

“A cemetery cannot come up all of a sudden in the middle of residential buildings, play area for children, a school, and a temple. The Christian community is trying to politicise the issue by threatening to boycott the elections,” said Mahesh Nadkarni, a resident of Ravi Estate near the plot located off Pokhran Road no. 2. “We hope that the TMC provides an alternative plot to the community as soon as possible so that they can carry out the burials there,” he said.

Christians from the locality are however adamant that the open plot where they buried 95-year-old Army man A. Jessiah on March 20 should be demarcated as a cemetery for them.

“Why should we get a plot far from the church? This plot belongs to St. John the Baptist Church Trust. Why can’t we bury our people on our own land?” asked Melwyn Fernandes.

Mr. Fernandes and 10 others were arrested by the Vartak Nagar police for burying Jessiah on the plot. On Monday, they moved an application in the High Court to quash the FIR against them.

At present, the community carries out burials on a site near Teen petrol pump. But members have for long complained that there is no vacant spot in the cemetery and bodies are being piled. The members have also called for avoiding the use of coffins as the decomposition takes more time and more space is required for burial.

Mr. Fernandes claimed that they have been demanding an additional burial ground from the TMC for the past several years but have never got any positive response.“If there are any more deaths in the community, we have no choice but to approach the court again,” Mr. Fernandes said.