Demolition drive likely to continue on Monday as HC orders clearing of illegal slums by end of November
The Brihanumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued a fresh notice on Friday to around 500 illegal shanties along the Behrampada area of Bandra East where a major fire had broke recently. These shanties are likely to be demolished on Monday. As per a Bombay High Court order, the civic body has to clear majority of these shanties by the end of November.
A day after a massive fire broke out on Thursday afternoon in the Garib Nagar slums in Behrampada area during a demolition drive, the civic body sent out notices to Chmrawadi, Indira Nagar, Garib Nagar, Mamu Chawl and Hussain Tekdi.
"We will continue the demolition work on illegal shanties in days to come," said a civic official from the H-East ward.
The official added that they had checked documents of around 2,000 slum dwellers and found only 700 valid for rehabilitation.
"These 700 legal affected families will be rehabilitated in Mahul where the civic body has sufficient homes available for the project affected persons (PAPs)," the official said.
According to the official, they have to remove all such encroachments by end of November. "After removing illegal encroachments, the civic body will construct a wall as these encroachments are along the Tansa Pipeline. The court has ordered the construction of a wall on either side of the pipeline with a distance of 10 metres on both sides of the pipeline," he added.
Meanwhile, police bandobast has been stepped up in Behrampada where the fire broke out and engulfed 170 shanties and damaged many others surrounding it. Three firemen had also sustained minor injuries during firefighting operations.
THE PROBE
- A senior civic officer, on condition of anonymity, said that a thorough investigation into the cause of the fire is being carried out by the Mumbai Fire Brigade and Nirmal Nagar police. The way the fire started from the ground up, in an area where there was no electrical wiring, indicated that some material lying on the ground was deliberately ignited.
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