The residents of Pimpripada and Ambedkar Nagar in Malad (East) are still reeling from the shock of the tragedy that struck them while they were fast asleep on Monday night.
A wall built by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) around a reservoir came crashing down in the heavy rain and buried the residents in rubble. Although rescue workers pulled out many survivors from the debris, 26 people lost their lives in the wall collapse.
Facing nature’s fury
The residents will have to continue living in fear of nature’s fury as plans to rehabilitate them on a 90-acre plot in Aarey Colony have not yet materialised. The State government had set aside the plot and demarcated it in the Development Plan 2014-2034 to rehabilitate the residents who have been living on the forest land since 1985. Over the years, residents have built concrete houses with one or two floors on the land belonging to the forest department.
In the late 90s, the forest department had undertaken a massive demolition drive to clear the land of encroachments, but it was met with stiff resistance. The State government then decided to rehabilitate tribal people and slum dwellers living on the forest land in Aarey Colony.
The Hindu had reported in December last year about the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) inviting bids to construct 25,000 tenements inside Aarey Colony at a cost of ₹3,500 crore. The contractor for the project, which is expected to be completed in two years, has not yet been finalised.
As part of the rehabilitation project, the forest department has collected ₹7,000 from each resident of the slum and along with the Slum Rehabilitation Authority is conducting a biometric survey to map the hutments. The survey will determine the residents eligible for resettlement and shift them to the new tenements. The encroachments on the forest land will then be razed.
Ajit Gupta, a resident of Pimpripada, said, “We first paid ₹7,000 each to the forest department and they recently came to do a survey. Nobody knows what happened after that. Many of us don’t want to go to Aarey owing to connectivity issues, but some of us just want to have houses now.”
‘Expedite process’
Dhanashree Bharadkar, the NCP corporator from the area, and her husband Vaibhav Bharadkar have been fighting for the rights of the slum dwellers for several years now. Mr. Bharadkar said, “Since it is forest land, these people cannot get any amenities like water and power connections. We had to struggle to provide them with toilets. Many of the residents do not want to shift to Aarey as it is quite far from here. The government needs to move quickly on the rehabilitation project.”
MLA Sunil Prabhu said that he has requested the Chief Minister to rehabilitate the affected people in the same area. He said, “Later, they will be given proper houses inside Aarey.” However, the documents of the residents were washed away in the heavy rain and the forest department will now have to pull out its records to determine which residents have to be rehabilitated first.
A senior official from the forest department said, “The residents of Pimpripada and Ambedkar Nagar are among those who will be rehabilitated inside Aarey Colony. But first we will move those who are living in an area of imminent danger to a safe location. Securing the area is now our biggest priority.”