Around 2,916 tenements house police constables and their families. Some families have been residing there for almost three generations.
The families of constables who have been residing in the BDD chawl since ages finally have some hope of getting their tenements regularised after the Bombay high court asked the Maharashtra government to consider a scheme for hire and purchase of tenements in the chawl.
A division bench of Justice PB Majmudar and Justice RM Sawant on Monday asked the government to consider regularising it on humanitarian grounds. "This is a human problem," said Justice Majmudar.
The court was hearing petitions filed by wives of retired and serving police constables, presently residing in the BDD chawls.
The BDD chawls, comprising 16,000 tenements at Worli, Naigaon, NM Joshi Marg and Sewree, were constructed more than 90 years ago. It consists of 160 square feet tenements housing government staff. Around 2,916 tenements house police constables and their families. Some families have been residing there for almost three generations.
Mihir Desai, advocate for the petitioners, said the government issued a resolution in 1994 by which tenements of other government employees and even the encroachers were regularised. The resolution did not include the police personnel. This amounted to discrimination and violation of fundamental right to equality, as they too were government employees.
Additional government pleader GW Mattos said the government was reviewing the 1994 resolution by which the service quarters of Class IV employees of BDD chawls were regularised. The decision will be taken in four weeks.
Mattos said the police quarters located in the BDD chawls belong to the Mumbai police commissionerate and are meant to house serving policemen and their families. The police already face a shortage of official quarters, and would not be in a position to hand over ownership of these tenements to the retired or dismissed police officers, he said.
The court, however, observed that the government must give uniform treatment to all. Justice Sawant said, "There is no rationale in government decisions. They are mostly knee-jerk reactions which come to haunt the government later."
Stressing on the humanitarian issue involved in this, justice Majmudar said, "This is a human problem. These are problems for the country as much as for a city like Bombay where it is difficult to get roof over the head. Even birds in the evening will go to their nest. Lion goes to his cave."
Directing the government to file an affidavit of its decision on the review of the 1994 GR, the court has kept the petitions for hearing on November 14, 2011.
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