Bandra’s Nargis Dutt Nagar locals & some politicians raise doubts over such recurrent episodes, question the State
After a massive fire broke out at the Nargis Dutt Nagar slum in Bandra, citizens as well as politicians raised doubts over frequent fire incidents in the area. With a rehabilitation scheme going on for the last 20 years, residents alleged that the slum is deliberately put on fire before every election.
There are around 1,600 huts in the Nargis Dutt slum. The land belongs to the Maharashtra Housing Area and Development Authority and a rehabilitation scheme has been on for 20 years. According to the executive engineer of MHADA, only 975 hut dwellers have provided necessary documents that are still being srutinised. MHADA completed its survey in 2010 but, the scheme never saw the light of day. The numbers of huts and their storeys are still rising. There are more than thousand huts with two to three storeys in this slum. In 2014, more than 2,100 fake voter IDs were found in this slum which is indicative of encroachment.
“Why isn’t the rehabilitation scheme a reality yet? I complained to the BMC about illegal huts and encroachment in this slum. There have been fire incidents in the past few years too. So, there are doubts that someone deliberately put the slum on fire. I have demanded inquiry over the incident,” said Ashish Shelar, an MLA from Bandra.
“In the last 15 years, there were four fire incidents and most of them occurred just before the election,” said Noor Bibi, a resident of the slum. Similarly, Ayub Khan, another resident of the slum said, “After such fire incidents, they take names and mobile numbers to provide help. In the last one decade we did not receive any kind of help. However, our details might help them during upcoming elections.”
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