The Shiv Sena reiterated its demand the civic body remove slums occupying public land illegally even as the Bombay High Court on Monday asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to supply water to slum-dwellers. The Sena has demanded that the BMC take action against slums which have come up after the cut off period of 1995.
The party leading BMC, however, has said the civic body will obey whatever orders/instructions the HC has passed.
"We are already complaining that there is shortage of open space in the city. This is mainly because slums have mushroomed on public spaces. If the municipal administration plans to supply water to all the slums-dwellers, it may mean legalizing shanties. So, on one hand we are complaining about waning open space due to encroachment by slum dwellers and on the other, we may just end up legalizing them. Hence, we reiterate our stand that slums which came up after 1995 be razed," said Yashodhar Phanase, standing committee chairman and Shiv Sena corporator from Versova.
Phanase denied that providing water to slums will reduce water theft. He said it will rather lead to proliferation of shanties and may strain the natural resource of water.
"We may end up supplying less water per head to honest tax payers if all the slum-dwellers are to be provided water. We are already making deficit supply to existing consumers. The gap between actual water demand and supply made will only widen if the administration supplies water to all the dwellers," he added.
The corporation supplies around 3,750 million litres water daily to consumers as against the estimated demand of 4,200 million litres per day.
The committee chairman said he is yet to go through the HC order. "I have not seen the HC order. But we will definitely follow the order. If HC has asked us to carry on a survey and check what will be the mechanism to distribute water to slum dwellers, we will definitely do that," Phanase said.
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