350 Babulnath temple volunteers sacked before Mahashivratri

The volunteers performed temple duties during festivals and important days at Babulnath mandir, Charni Road every year, however, the police and private security are called in this year to manage crowd

As many as 350 volunteers have been sacked from one of Mumbai's oldest Shiva temples - Babulnath mandir - just a few days before the Mahashivratri celebrations.

Sachin Shetty, a volunteer and an eatery owner in south Mumbai, said, "We have been managing the affairs during festivals and in the holy month of Shravan. We are hurt and upset. Never have we asked for a single penny, we have paid for expenses out of our pockets. After serving for 25 years, we are told by the new trustee Pradip Shroff that he does not need us. We do not know what went wrong."

Shetty further added, "This year there is no management or preparations in place, which would commence two months earlier. This year we have been told that the police and private security will be managing everything."

‘Step-motherly treatment'

"He does not wish to listen or even have a dialogue with us. Some of them are very angry, they come from areas like Bhayandar, Valsad and even Kutch in Gujarat to offer their services during the holy month and festival days," said Shetty.

Sunil Shah, a stockbroker and a volunteer, who has been serving the temple for two decades, said, "People come from different states to help during important days voluntarily. After these many years of hard work, loyalty and honesty, this step-motherly treatment is not right. No trustee has ever been this involved or interfered in our process of work."

He said this year, for crowd control, the police will be deployed and private security agencies have been hired. "Had we been there, we would have saved costs of hiring manpower from outside. The trustee says the decision did not involve him, but we know it is not true."

Pradip Shroff, the temple trustee, refused to take queries regarding this matter. "This is the decision taken by the board of trustees and chairman Nitin Thakkar. The allegations of the volunteers are not true and it was a joint decision," he said.

The chairman says

Nitin Thakkar, chairman, board if trustees, said "I don't want to create a controversy as this is an auspicious and religious event. There are three groups of volunteers who want to be part of the organising committee. There is pressure as some or the other group has members from a political party. Sometimes it is not possible to accommodate them, as this year owing to Covid there are protocols to be followed. The list of volunteers' names has gone to the police for approval so there's no question of us not allowing them. Because there aren't too many people that will be allowed, it's obvious that so many volunteers are not required. We are not being unfair to anyone."