Chennai: The St Thomas Mount-Pallavaram Cantonment Board’s decision to approve plans for a new church building has come under the scanner after the Pastor of Wesley Tamil Church claimed that he had actually requested the Board to not grant permission.
The Presbyter-in-charge of the Church, Rev. J. Paul Sudhakar, told DC that the cantonment board had granted approval when the request for plan approval was not endorsed by the pastorate committee executive of the church, a position occupied by him. “I wrote two letters to the board CEO, one on February 26 and the other on March 2 requesting to deny permission. Despite that, the board went ahead and gave approval,” he said.
The church located on the main road leading to Kathipara flyover, and running parallel to Butt Road, is a member of the Church of South India Synod and has been in turmoil for the last two years with internal squabbles among the pastorate committee office-bearers over the construction of a new church.
As per the minutes of the meeting held on March 8, the Cantonment Board gave approval and reasoned it by saying that 11 of 14 pastorate committee members, led by treasurer by name of Dr Jebaraj Walter, had cited by-laws of the church constitution to claim that powers had been delegated by the committee.
“The CEO should have read the entire clause cited by them and they would have realised what all powers could be delegated. Even then, how is it that the committee delegated powers when executive member, the pastor in this case, did not even convene a committee meeting? How can a plan approval be forwarded without the stamp of the committee chairman or the secretary?” Sudhakar asked.
When contacted, Dr Jebaraj Walter, the treasurer of the committee, claimed that he had nothing to do with the situation. According to church members, the existing worship hall, constructed in 1935, had developed noticeable cracks on its pillars. Amid worries that the structure was unsafe for conducting masses, the church in 2012 decided to go for a new structure. As the classification status of the land meant that it required NOC from the state government, the work did not take off until 2014.
“By that time, a new committee was voted into power. When work started, we realised that the design of the building was different from that for which approval had been granted. The church members objected to this and brought it to the Cantonment Board’s notice, whose site engineers inspected and ordered to stop work citing violation,” said senior member, V. Samson Juda Wilfred.
“The Madras Diocese too got wind of the situation and the pastor at the time was held responsible and shifted out of the church. The church members expressed concern about the plan change because it was also the year of the Moulivakkam disaster, which again happened due to altered plans,” he added. Cantonment Board CEO B. Ajith Reddy did not offer comment when contacted.
