Dombivli bandh near total

The call for bandh in Dombivli on Monday over the issue of temple land evoked good response with shops, restaurants and business establishments remaining closed and buses and auto rickshaws keeping off the roads.

The Kalyan division police said that the bandh was 80 per cent successful and there were no reports of any untoward incident.

The call for bandh was given by all political parties to protest against the alleged grabbing of land belonging to a temple by a senior IPS officer.

The local MLAs Ramesh Patil of the MNS and Ravindra Chavan of the BJP supported the bandh call and endorsed the stand of the trustees of the temple.

A meeting held on August 15 between the trustees and IPS officer Mari-Lou Fernandes in the presence of police failed to resolve the matter.

Fernandes was ready for compromise by giving away part of the plot on which the temple is located, but the trustees claimed that she did not have the power to do so as she did not possess the 7/12 extract papers of the land.

At present, the land falls under the area covered by Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation that would decide the issue.

"We were expecting officials to come up with a definite decision by today but they said they would need more time. Hence, we went ahead with the call for Dombivli bandh on Monday," said Prakash Mhatre, Trustee of Pimpleshwar Temple.

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