Civic officials inspect hotel near demolished Jain temple in Vile Parle
"Inspection began on April 22 itself and continued on April 23. The civic staff will complete its inspection and suggest if there are any violations," a civic official said.
The inspection of the hotel follows a visit by the State Minorities Commission to the site of the now-demolished temple on Tuesday, April 22. BMC officials said the commission held a hearing in the matter, during which they were directed to examine the hotel for any unauthorised constructions or alterations.
"When the commission members visited the site, we showed them the plans of the hotel and sought an inspection," said Anil Shah of the temple Shree 1008 Parshwanath Digambar Jain Mandir trust.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Encuentra apartamentos disponibles cerca de ti ahora
Apartamentos en alquiler | Anuncios de búsqueda
Más información
Undo
BMC officials said that the inspection is being carried out in compliance with that directive. A civic notice will be issued if any violations are found.
Hotel authorities believe they are being unfairly targeted in the matter. On Wednesday, the hotel manager was summoned to the local police station over complaints of uncleanliness around the premises and was allowed to go after a few hours, said a hotel staff member. "Even if there are hygiene issues, it is the BMC's jurisdiction to act—not the police," said a staff member.
Civic sources said that on April 11, when legal remarks were sought on whether the office of the Building and Factory Department should proceed with the scheduled demolition action on April 16 or not, the assistant law officer K-East Ward mentioned that the department should proceed with the scheduled demolition action on April 16, 2025, as per the provisions of the law, unless the noticee produces any stay order.
BJP MLAs, including cabinet minister M P Lodha, met BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani on April 22, demanding restoration permission of the temple. Civic authorities have said that no permission can be granted until the matter comes up in court for hearing, which is now scheduled for April 30.
On Wednesday, the Municipal Engineers Association and the Municipal Workers Union held a protest at the K-East Ward office condemning the BMC's decision to transfer ward officer Navnath Ghadge. The transfer came days after the April 16 demolition of the Jain temple. Union leaders warned that if such transfers continue, officials would act on religious structures only with explicit sanction from the municipal commissioner.
Executive president Ramesh Bhutekar Deshmukh said, "If the ward officer was transferred without any investigation in the matter, this is not justified. The BMC administration must not succumb to any kind of political pressure, at least when the official has acted in the right manner and after the court order. If the ward officer had not acted, the court would have reprimanded them in the case." he said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
36 minutes ago
- Time of India
Kanthapuram's efforts spark hope for nurse
Kozhikode: The emergency meeting held in Yemen on Monday after Sunni leader Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musaliyar's last-minute effort to save Keralite nurse Nimisha Priya has given a glimmer of hope. Sources close to Kanthapuram said that efforts are on to reach a consensus within Mahdi's family and postpone the punishment until then. Priya, who is on death row at the central prison in Yemen's capital Sana'a, is scheduled to be executed on July 16. She is on death row for the 2017 murder of Yemeni national Talal Abdo Mahdi. Kanthapuram, who holds the title of Grand Mufti of India, reached out to prominent Yemeni Islamic scholar Sheikh Habib Omar seeking his help to urge Mahdi's family to grant pardon to Priya by accepting 'blood money'. Omar's representative Habib Abdurrahman Ali Mashoor along with representatives of the Yemeni government, the supreme judge of Jinayat court and tribal leaders held discussions in Mahdi's native place Damar in northern Yemen. The talks are expected to continue on Tuesday. Sources said their contacts, who took part in the talks, conveyed that Monday's discussions were promising and they expect a positive decision during follow-up talks on Tuesday. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Get ₹2Cr life cover@ ₹700 p.m. ICICI Pru Life Insurance Plan Get Quote Undo They are hopeful that Omar, who is influential in Yemen, would be able to persuade Mahdi's family and all tribal leaders. Omar, who is a respected Sufi scholar in Yemen, had visited Kanthapuram's Markazu Saquafathi Sunniyya to attend a function. Sources said a dialogue with the victim's family became possible and the presence of various stakeholders, including tribal leaders, is seen as a positive step in the highly-sensitive Mahdi murder case among northern Yemen's tribal groups. Meanwhile office-bearers of Nimisha Priya International Action Council thanked Kanthapuram for his intervention. Nimisha, a native of Kollengode in Palakkad, was accused of murdering Talal Abdo Mahdi with whom she had started a health clinic in Sana'a. She allegedly chopped his body and dumped the parts in a water tank. Mahdi had reportedly tortured her and illegally seized her passport which allegedly led to the murder. A trial court sentenced her to death in 2018 and an appeals court later upheld the sentence. The lack of formal diplomatic ties with Yemen's Houthi militants posed an issue in securing her release. While Houthi militias control Sana'a, the rest of the country is governed by the internationally recognized Saudi-backed govt and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council. The Yemeni embassy in Delhi represents the Saudi-backed govt and has no official ties with Houthis.
Time of India
36 minutes ago
- Time of India
Road widening projects not helping in reducing traffic congestion in big cities: MLC Tambe
Pune: MLC Satyajeet Tambe on Tuesday urged the urban development and home departments to collaborate on finding solutions to the growing traffic menace in major cities, while highlighting the state's traffic woes in the legislative council, particularly on congested highways like Pune-Nashik and Pune-Nagar, which remain bottlenecked despite widening efforts. Tambe, along with other MLCs, raised the hardships faced by common people because of traffic congestion. "According to the latest report of the TomTom index on traffic, Mumbai and Pune are among the cities with the highest traffic congestion. To resolve this issue, some stringent steps are needed from state govt," Tambe said. While state govt and NHAI have undertaken road widening work on various highways and arterial roads of cities, Tambe said, "Earlier, it would take four to five hours to travel between Pune and Nashik and two hours from Pune to Ahilyanagar. Now, despite the road widening work on sections of these highways, the traffic congestion has increased. It shows that road widening has failed to keep pace with the rising vehicle population. " You Can Also Check: Pune AQI | Weather in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune Replying to Tambe on behalf of govt, cabinet minister Uday Samant admitted that traffic congestion became an acute issue in major cities. "Every day, a large number of vehicles are getting registered in major cities, which is adding to traffic problems. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Ingin Tahu Tentang Diagnosis Limfoma? Dapatkan Info Selengkapnya Limfoma Baca Undo State govt is, however, working on promoting the mass transport system. It has a plan of creating a network of Metro service where 393.76km of network is planned in Mumbai, 136.42km in Pune, and 83.82km in Nagpur. Once this network is in place, it will encourage people to use Metro service, reducing the use of private vehicles," Samant said. Tambe said govt was introducing modern technology, but it should be foolproof. "State govt is creating a network of CCTV cameras through which traffic offenders are being caught and challans are being issued. Some misappropriation is, however, happening with the system as several vehicle owners have complained that they are either getting wrong challans or double challans for the same offence. According to the figures of state govt, there are Rs 1,000 crore pending for recovery through challans till 2024," Tambe said. He demanded that state govt should hold a joint meeting of home department and urban development department officials to address the traffic issues. "Instead of working in isolation, these departments should work jointly and review certain projects' success to check if they have helped improve the traffic situation in the state," Tambe said.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Will bring Pahalgam attackers to justice: External affairs minister S Jaishankar at SCO
EAM Jaishankar with Chinese President Xi Jinping The Pahalgam terrorist attack was deliberately conducted to undermine Jammu & Kashmir's tourism economy and sow a religious divide, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) foreign ministers' meeting in China's Tianjin, even as his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar looked on. Recalling the strong condemnation of the April 22 attack by UNSC, where China is a permanent and Pakistan non-permanent member, Jaishankar called upon the Eurasian bloc to take an uncompromising position on terror and stressed that India would continue to work to bring the perpetrators of the J&K attack to justice. India presses for strong rebuke on terror, Pahalgam in SCO declaration | page 22 While raising the issue of the Pahalgam terror attack at the SCO foreign ministers' meeting in China on Tuesday, S Jaishankar did not name Pakistan as the bloc's charter prohibits member-states from raising hostilities in bilateral relations. However, like in his address at the same meeting in Islamabad last year, he reminded his counterparts that the bloc was founded to combat the three evils of terrorism, separatism and extremism. "Not surprisingly, they often occur together. Recently, we in India witnessed a graphic example in the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22. It was deliberately conducted to undermine tourism economy of Jammu & Kashmir, while sowing a religious divide," Jaishankar said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Tennessee Launches New Coverage for Senior Drivers The Quote General Learn More Undo He also said while India would continue to approach new ideas and proposals by SCO positively for "collective good", such cooperation must be based on mutual respect, sovereign equality and in accordance with territorial integrity and sovereignty of member states. The foreign ministers' meeting looked to finalise the agenda, including the final declaration, for the SCO summit that will be hosted by President Xi Jinping in Sept and in which PM Modi is expected to participate. India is pressing for a strong condemnation of terrorism in the declaration, including the Pahalgam attack. "UNSC, of which some of us are currently members, issued a statement that condemned it in strongest terms and 'underlined the need to hold perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors of this reprehensible act of terrorism accountable and bring them to justice'. We have since done exactly that and will continue doing so. It is imperative that SCO, to remain true to its founding objectives, take an uncompromising position on this challenge," the minister added. In a bilateral meet with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Monday, EAM had described terrorism as a shared concern, expressing hope that SCO will strongly uphold zero tolerance against terrorism. Combating terrorism and ensuring a terror-free Afghanistan tops India's priority list in the security-oriented group that is looking to expand cooperation in areas like trade, investment & people-to-people exchanges. On Afghanistan, Jaishankar said it had been long on the SCO agenda and the compulsions of regional stability were buttressed by India's long-standing concern for the well-being of the Afghan people. "The international community, particularly SCO members, must therefore step up with development assistance. India, for its part, will certainly do so," he said. The minister lamented lack of assured transit within the SCO space, saying its absence undermines the seriousness of advocating cooperation in economic areas. This again was a dig at Pakistan which continues to block land access to Afghanistan and Central Asia for India. While talking about a world besieged by conflicts, competition and coercion, Jaishankar said the challenge before SCO is to stabilise the global order, de-risk various dimensions and "through it all, address long-standing challenges that threaten our collective interests". "World is moving towards multi-polarity. This is not just in terms of redistribution of national capacities, but also emergence of effective groupings like SCO. Our ability to contribute to shaping of world affairs will depend on how well we come together on a shared agenda. That means taking everybody on board," he added.
