Mumbai: In a significant development, the Bombay High Court has instructed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct an inquiry into the construction of a madrasa on land originally reserved for a school playground in Oshiwara. The court’s order came following a petition filed by actor Kunickaa Sadanand, who has been actively involved in the betterment of the Prateeksha Nagar Municipal School.
Sadanand, who adopted the school through her NGO in 2004, expressed concerns about the high dropout rate at the school, which currently only offers classes up to Class 4. Her NGO had proposed expanding the school’s facilities to include classes up to Class 10, with support from the BMC. However, the land reserved for the expansion, which should have been used as a playground, has been occupied by the Markazul Ma’Arif Education and Research Centre, where the madrasa is now located.
The madrasa claimed that the land had been allotted to them by the Mumbai Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and that their construction had been regularised. However, Sadanand contested this, presenting evidence that the land was handed over to the BMC in December 1981 and officially designated as a playground for the school in 2015. She argued that despite this, the BMC had not taken any action to utilize the land for its intended purpose and raised questions over the validity of the madrasa’s claims of regularisation.
The court’s directive for an inquiry by the BMC highlights the ongoing tensions between land use policies, educational needs, and community development, as authorities are now tasked with determining the legality of the madrasa’s construction and the impact on the school’s future expansion.
