Mumbai's 'illegal Dargah' near Mahim coast razed after MNS chief warns to build Ganesh temple there

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday began the demolition of the illegal construction around the Mazar that has illegally come up off the Mahim coast in Mumbai.

Mumbai City Resident Collector Sadanand Jadhav told news agency PTI the ''mazar' and the structure around it had come up illegally on revenue department land.

A six-member team was formed for its demolition with the help of personnel from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and Mumbai police, he added. Apart from this, many labourers and a JCB machine were also called on the spot. Collector and DCP have themselves reached the spot.

''The BMC provided machinery for demolishing the illegal structure and Mumbai police gave security,'' Jadhav informed.

Other officials said the team set up by the collector had visited the site in the morning, after which demolition procedures began.

Incidentally, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray had warned about the structure in his 'Padwa Melawa' speech at Shivaji Park on Wednesday evening. He demanded removal of the illegal dargah and said that if it is not demolished immediately, then his party would construct a huge Ganpati temple at the same place.

"Whose dargah it is? Is it of a fish? It was not there a couple of years ago… If the illegal construction is not demolished immediately, then we would construct a huge Ganpati temple at the same place," Raj Thackeray said.

Meanwhile, the Mahim Dargah Trust took cognizance of the incident and said that the 'illegal dargah' as alleged by Thackeray is 600 years old.