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Mumbai: With the Shinde-Fadnavis government shifting the controversial Metro-3 carshed back to Aarey Colony, social media is rife with all types of comments and claims around the issue, which has become a crucible for the various environmental, political and civic concerns in the city. While many of these fall within the realm of personal opinion, a few viral messages are demonstrably false, such as one which alleges that the site of the Metro-3 car-shed originally belongs to a church.

“The root of this problem is the church. The land on which the car shed is coming up was given to the church quite a few years back for a cemetery. Then the church asked for some more land for a cemetery house and again more land for a hostel. They just sat on the land without doing anything on it within the statutory time limit. The ultimate aim was not the cemetery but a land grab for church, hostel and other things... The protests started after leaflets were distributed in Stanislaus High School in Bandra, and then other mission schools asking parents to join the protests,” reads one such message which has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp.

But, as activists and officials have pointed out, there exists no record of any church or other religious body having ownership of the contested 33-acre plot.

Stalin D, environmentalist and a petitioner in three out of seven pending cases relating to the Aarey matter in courts, said, “There is a 5,000 square foot plot allotted for a Christian cemetery, but that is close to the Western Express Highway in Goregaon, where the Metro Bhavan building is proposed to come up. The MMRDA in 2019 realigned the plot to accommodate the cemetery as there is no public cemetery for Christians in the western suburbs, from Khar to Dahisar. To claim that any church has a stake on the car-shed plot is outright false.”

This fact was also confirmed by an official in the media relations department of the MMRCL, which is executing the Metro-3 project. “The land was handed over to us by the dairy department on August 22, 2014. The dairy department would have acquired it many decades ago from the state government. We are not aware of any claims over it by any church or other religious organisation.”

Yet another piece of misinformation that has cropped up on social media relates to the status of the Kanjurmarg land, which has been proposed as an alternative by environmentalists and also the previous MVA government.

“After crying hoarse about saving the environment, Metro Depot was proposed to be shifted to mangrove land in Kanjur,” reads one such Tweet, posted by Twitter user @sparkar5 in the aftermath of the new government’s announcement to shift the carshed back to Aarey.

Another, posted earlier this week by the handle @sublimetrekkie, states, “You thought Kanjur, the new location, is without trees and nature? Its next to the mangrove forest. Understand that Mumbai has no space left. The only logical way of ensuring green cover is ensuring govt sticks to promise of relocating/planting trees.”

This claim, too, has been debunked repeatedly. Virendra Tiwari, additional principal chief conservator of forests (mangrove cell), confirmed to HT that there are no mangroves at the Kanjur site. “There are mangroves in Kanjur, but on the western side of the highway as one goes toward Thane. The land on the eastern side, where the alternative carshed site is, does not have any mangroves at all.”

A third issue which has become obfuscated in the barrage of content being put out is the role of courts. One Twitter user, @EkVishwa, Tweeted on July 5, “It is not that the state government has directly out of its will selected land in Aarey. Environment Impact assessment study report has been done and also the Supreme Court has upheld the car shed being built at Aarey.”

Similarly, user @Rajesh_0670 posted, “Metro carshed will be made in Aarey. The location is approved by the High Court, NGT and Supreme Court. All real Mumbaikars say #CarShedWahiBanega.”

“This claim is being bandied about by a lot of people, but is not based in fact. There are seven pending cases in the Aarey matter, one before the Bombay High Court and the rest before the Supreme Court. A court may decide to quash a plea, take up a matter suo motu or adjudicate in favour of a party. But no “approval” has been given from any court. It is not the court’s job to tell the government where to build the carshed,” said Zoru Bhatena, one of the petitioners in the matter.

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