A PIL seeking alternative houses for 1200 slum-dwellers removed from the Sabarmati riverfront came up for hearing before the Gujarat high court on Monday. The petition alleged that the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had failed to provide alternative accommodation to the displaced slum-dwellers despite the fact that many had proof that they had earlier lived on the riverbank.
After a primary hearing of the case, the bench of acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala issued notices to the state government, the municipal commissioner and CEO of the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Corporation Limited (SRDCL). The bench also directed that the justice (retired) DP Buch committee be made a party respondent in the case. The PIL was filed by Congress leader Dipak Babariya through his counsel, DP Joshi.
Joshi submitted that thousands of slum-dwellers were displaced when the AMC demolished hutments on both sides of river Sabarmati. The civic body had given shelter homes to 6,000 people at Piplaj but 1200 displaced people were still homeless, the lawyer said.
These people were earlier living on the riverfront between Dudheswar and Jamalpur on the eastern bank of the Sabarmati and between Keshavnagar and Vasana barrage on the western side of the river, he said.
The counsel further submitted that 396 people were not given homes despite proof. Another 679 people did not have sufficient proof but had documents to show that they were residents of the riverfront and 274 people had given their names to the justice Buch committee but they were yet to be allocated homes, the lawyer said.
The Buch committee was constituted by the high court to determine the authentic residents of the riverfront and give them alternative homes.
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