The top court in India’s commercial capital Mumbai (formerly Bombay) has restrained a suburban civic body from converting designated burial grounds for other purposes.
The Bombay High Court in western Maharashtra state on July 19 asked the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) “not to use the land designated as a burial ground in the city development plan for any other purpose.”
The court order came in a plea filed by a group of Christians in the city.
“It is a major victory for the Christians who live in the suburban civic body limits,” said Melwyn Fernandes, the lead petitioner in the case.
Fernandes, a Catholic activist, told UCA News on July 21 that the local Christian community has been facing a severe shortage of burial grounds after many of its designated cemeteries “were encroached on by builders and influential people with the backing of politicians.”
Land is very expensive in Mumbai and the city and its suburbs are prone to illegal encroachments by land sharks.
The megacity of some 21 million people on the coast of the Arabian Sea houses the most expensive real estate projects in the country and attracts millions of immigrants from across the nation.
“I filed an application under the Right to Information Act, a special law empowering citizens to seek information from the government, to get details of burial grounds meant for Christians,” Fernandes said.

Pro-government media outlets in Indonesia have accused an activist priest of turning local villagers against a state-sponsored geothermal project in Christian-majority Flores Island, which the priest denounced as “fabricated.”
Online portal Infopertama.com published a report on July 25 that alleged Divine Word priest, Father Simon Suban Tukan, has been behind protests by villagers against the power project at Poco Leok in Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara province.
The report accused the priest, the chairman of Divine Word’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Commission (JPIC-SVD) for being the organizer of a women’s march against the project last month.
It ended after police reportedly charged in and beat up protesters, leaving several injured and one person hospitalized.
The report on the Bahasa Indonesian language site said that all protests against the project including the women march “were instigated” by Father Tukan.
It alleged that some of the women were willing to go topless as a form protest against the power project.
The report quoted Raimundus Wajong, a resident who supports the scheme, saying that Father Tukan “recruited Poco Leok residents to reject the project.”
Last week, another outlet, Suaranusantara.co, accused the priest of “provoking residents to reject the project” and “damaging people’s lives.”

The majority of Catholic nuns in India struggle to provide healthcare to their elderly and infirm members because of logistical and financial challenges, says a new survey report.
Some 44% of 190 religious congregations do not have any care facility for elderly and infirm members, found the survey by the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a Washington DC-based research organization affiliated to the Jesuits-run Georgetown University.
CARA conducts social, scientific studies about the Catholic Church, and offers a range of research services to dioceses, parishes, religious communities and institutes. The research study said 29% have one facility and 27% have two or more facilities owned by their congregation. Of those owning care facilities, a majority of 85% said their facility “is partially equipped,” according to the sur-vey report released this month. Only the rest are fully equipped.
The study, commissioned by the Conference of Religious Women in India (CRWI), was carried out between April and June this year. The survey is based on the responses from superiors general of the congregations. The majority of the respondents spend at least one-fourth of their income on the elderly and infirm.
Half of the responding congregations said 26–50% of their annual budget is spent on the care of the elderly and sick nuns. About a quarter reported spending 25% or less of their annual budget.
Some 68% of congregations allocate funds from their annual budget for the care of their elderly and infirm members.
About 40% of the religious congregations spent between 10,000 and 24,999 rupees (US$121-304) every month for taking care of their elderly and sick. About one-third require 50,000 rupees (US$608) a month, the survey report said. Most congregations said they face challenges in taking care of the elderly and the sick. Major ones were “healthcare challenges, financial challenges, and congregational challenges.”