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Locals rue bad maintenance of open spaces in the area

R-North ward (Dahisar East, Dahisar West, parts of Borivli) Some other issues such as illegal hawking, narrow roads, and dumped debris add to the woes of the ward

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Traffic congestion during peak hours can be seen on various road stretches of the R-North ward
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Overview

R-North ward covers Dahisar East and West. It includes Kandarpada, Gaondevi, Ketkipada, Vaishali Nagar, Ashokvan, Ambawadi and Mandpeshwar areas. Some parts of Borivli also fall under this ward. The resident population in R-North ward largely belong to the lower middle and middle income group. However, in the last few years, the population of the higher income group is rising slowly in this ward.

The positive aspect of this ward is that it has more than 20 open spaces. Excluding a few gardens and playgrounds, they have been maintained well by the BMC. Some of the well-known gardens developed by the civic body here are Green Park, Tukaram Omble garden, Mother Teresa garden, Geetanjali, and Gaondevi garden. 

The residents of R-North ward are glad to have many open spaces, but are not happy with the civic body’s decision to hand over their open spaces to third-party caretakers for maintenance. The social activists in R-North ward have been protesting against this decision. They say that the municipal corporation has a budget of Rs 400 crore for maintaining open spaces and that the civic body is capable of taking care of it on its own.

Dahisar falls at the northern end of the city limits. The R-North ward will get good accessibility from various parts of the city after the Mumbai Metro line 2 and 7 projects become operational. The construction work has begun and the state government has set 2019 as the deadline.

However, R-North ward has some civic issues like illegal hawking, narrow roads, dumped debris and rapidly developing slums which are plaguing the ward.

POLITICAL SCENARIO

The R-North ward has been dominated by the Shiv Sena, with five of the seven corporators in the ward from the party. The ward also has a corporator each from the MNS and Congress. MNS made its foray into this ward in last civic elections of 2012. At present, member of parliament from the ward is Gopal Shetty from BJP and the MLAs are Manisha Choudhary from BJP and Prakash Surve from Shiv Sena. The saffron alliance has held sway in the ward.

After delimitation, the number of electoral wards in R North have increased from 7 to 8 seats.

issues

Ganpat Patil Nagar is the biggest slum area in the ward and the illegal encroachment is rising rapidly. The residents complain that if the encroachments are not controlled, it will give rise to crime rates in the ward.

Illegal hawking is another big issue in the ward. Although the BMC catch holds of many hawking zones, the hawkers return the next day. The have also given rise to traffic jams in the area.

Many roads in the ward are not more than 60 feet. It is important to widen the roads as the population in the ward is also rising, the activists say.

Due to no parking facility in many buildings, vehicles are parked on roads adding congestion on the roads which are already narrow.

The construction of Metro lines on Dahisar link road are causing traffic jams as the debris are dumped on roads.

Residents speak

Many lanes in Kandarpada are full with vehicles parked on both sides. Traders also park their vehicles for hours causing inconvenience to the pedestrians. Due to unavailability of enough parking facility in the old buildings, many vehicles are parked on roads. The civic body should also look after the Dahisar river which flows from the national park. The river has become a nulla now”.
—Shrikant Soman, coordinator of AGNI Foundation and resident of Dahisar

Illegal hawking is causing many civic issues. It feels that the footpaths do not exist is that area. The civic body should provide a market in Ganpat Patil nagar. All the hawkers occupy roads to the extent that it becomes difficult for motorists to pass. Due to no market facility, the customers encourage hawkers, thus causing traffic. Our ward has many open spaces and we protest that BMC should not handover them to third-party for maintenance. The civic body is capable to take care of the open spaces”.
—Willie Shirsat, social activist and resident of Dahisar.

The official word

Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ashok Khaire said, “The Ganpat Patil Nagar slum is a big challenge. We have provided lamp posts and will now supply water to the slum after year 2000, following the high court’s order. We are going to take strong action against the encroachments. After a survey, we will demolish the illegal huts. The roads in Dahisar are narrow and accordingly we have started road widening projects. For instance, the SV road widening work is in process. Hawking prevails in the ward but not at all locations. At major hawking locations, we will take action to decongest the areas. We are also working on Dahisar river cleaning project”.

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