According to members of River March the entire drive has been initiated as a fightback by the people of Mumbai to save their rivers
In what is possibly the first such step taken, a group of Mumbaikars have come together and decided to crowdfund their plans to sue the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the ongoing rampant concretisation of the riverbeds of the Dahisar and Poisar rivers in Mumbai.
According to members of River March — a movement started to rejuvenate all the four rivers of Mumbai — the entire drive has been initiated as a fightback by the people of Mumbai to save their rivers.
“The BMC has begun concretisation work along the Dahisar and Poisar rivers, and has also concretised the bases of these rivers. Since that is illegal and harmful for the rivers, we began sending letters, organised protest marches and even met BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta recently, but the corporation seems adamant about carrying on with the concretisation of the river beds. We have thus been left with no option but to knock on the doors of the judiciary,” said Advocate Bhagyashree Mahale, a River March member.
She added that the forum’s core team decided to approach both the Bombay High Court as well as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) over the violations being carried out by the BMC. “We are already telling people that this is a transparent movement and not only will those contributing funds be given receipts, but they can also become a petitioner and be a part of the entire legal procedure,” Mahale said. In fact, River March had already collected Rs 16,000 on a crowd-funding platform by Sunday evening.
The forum’s founder, Gopal Jhaveri, said that they were inspired by Lokmanya Tilak, who had started Sarvajanik Ganesh Utsav to unite people against the British.
CIVIC BODY TO BE TAKEN TO COURT
The members of River March told BMC officials that concretising the beds of the Dahisar and Poisar rivers in Mumbai would affect the entire riverine system, but said that civic officials are only ignoring them. The forum now plans to sue the municipal corporation.
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