It was the seventh day of protests at Mount Mary, where senior citizens and women who previously had stalls at the Bandra fair protested against the new, hiked stall rentals. The church will start distributing around 600 forms for 150 stalls from Monday with the new rates. As mid-day reported earlier, people who have been running stalls for generations strongly protested against the decision to hike the rent from Rs 150 per sqft to Rs 3,000 per sqft.

The church then slashed the rent to Rs 900 per sqft. The protesters say, however, that this is still exorbitant, adding up to Rs 90,000 for a 100 sqft stall. With their attempts to meet Cardinal Oswald Gracias to resolve the issue bearing no fruit, their protest continued at the fair’s application form distribution window on Saturday.