JOIN USThe Full Gospel Assembly of God (FGAG) Church in eastern Bengaluru's Indiranagar has promised to work out a solution by July 20 to address local residents' grievances over its "noisy and raucous" religious activities.
One of the long-term solutions is to build a secondary church elsewhere so that half of the crowd could be diverted there.
On Saturday, the traffic police convened a meeting to reconcile the differences between the residents and representatives of the church, located on 6th Main Road in Indiranagar. The meeting was organised by ACP (Traffic-East) Raja Imam Khasim, who interacted with both the residents' welfare association and the church members.
The church assured the RWA it would come back with solutions on July 20 to ease the inconvenience caused because of their failure to manage the huge crowd of worshippers. "They brought their issues and we have agreed to work through and find a solution to please our neighbours," said Prakash, the pastor.
The church has committed to reducing the noise levels to 55dB until 10 pm and 45 decibels after 10 pm, as per the law. The pastor also agreed to immediately remove the kebab and juice stalls set up by the church members.
Prakash informed the people present at the meeting that they were in the process of acquiring land elsewhere, so that about 50% of the crowd would be diverted there. The main church will, however, remain in Indiranagar.
"That has always been there on our minds, but we need to get things done soon. We are unable to manage the humongous crowd," he added.
Regarding the church's suggestion that a nearby playground could be used as a parking space for devotees, Ashok Sharat, president, Defence Colony Residents' Welfare Association, said: "A playground is a playground. It is meant for children to play. It cannot be used for parking."
Khasim said they had received complaints of traffic congestion from the residents. He said he had also received a letter from the church to remove the stalls on the footpaths and that they were acting on it. "If we receive a complaint, we'll surely try to find a solution," he added.