The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up the case of 500 slum colonies existing on and around the Jogeshwari caves.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has taken up the case of 500 slum colonies existing on and around the Jogeshwari caves.
The Bombay High Court has ordered the authorities to remove the encroachments which have infested the caves and designate the land as a ‘garden’. Corporators from various parties, however, have demanded a stop on the proposed demolition drive.
The civic administration, in consultation with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the suburban collector’s office, had recently issued eviction notices to the slum dwellers.
At an improvements committee meeting on Wednesday, corporators demanded the deferring of the demolition plan and asked for alternate rehabilitation in the same area for the slum dwellers. Congress corporator Dharmesh Vyas said that another court order does not permit slum demolitions in the monsoons.
The corporators also objected to the state’s decision to denotify the site as a slum. Congressman Rajendra Chaube claimed that the denotification affected the rehabilitation chances of over 200 families. “While structures up to January 1, 1995 can be tolerated in a notified slum, the same decreases to January 1, 1964, for a denotified site.”
Claiming that this was unfair, Chaube said, “When for structures on forests, CRZ lands, those affected by infrastructure projects (MUTP/MUIP), a datum line of January 1,1995 is tolerated, why should slum dwellers on archaeologically relevant sites be treated any differently.” Sena corporator Ramesh Latke, meanwhile, demanded that the slum dwellers be rehabilitated in the same ward.
Improvement committee chairman Yashodhar Phanse has decided to forward these objections to the state urban development department. The state has already initiated proceedings of designating the heritage precinct as a ‘garden’.
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