Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar at the groundbreaking ceremony in Mumbai on Sunday. (Ganesh Shirsekar) The groundbreaking ceremony for the redevelopment work at BDD chawls in Mumbai was held Sunday in presence of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar.
Thackeray is the second chief minister to preside over a groundbreaking ceremony at BDD chawla. Former CM and incumbent leader of opposition in state Assembly Devendra Fadnavis had done one during his tenure, but the project did not take off.
On Sunday, Thackeray evoked the history of BDD chawls and their role in the movement for a united Maharashtra, and said leaders, such as Vasudev Balwant Phadke, also stayed at the chawls.
“Tomorrow you may shift from chawl to the towers but don’t let the chawl culture break down. We have stayed in the chawls for the entire life and this is your very own house so don’t fall prey to temptations and not let the roots of Marathi culture and asmita (pride) get destroyed,” Thackeray said. He added that the people residing in the chawls have given a lot to the Shiv Sena.
Thackeray said that his grandparents, too, lived at chawls in Dadar and he used to frequently visit them during his childhood. NCP chief Sharad Pawar noted that Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, Prabodhankar Thackeray, Annabhau Sathe, Acharya Atre and many great personalities and revolutionaries had lived in BDD chawls.
“One can see examples of unity and integrity at such a place. People of various castes and religions stay together in the chawls for years and decades and we should preserve the history of such chawls,” he said.
He urged the residents of the chawls not to sell their hard-earned property after redevelopment and not let the numbers of Marathi people in the city go down by migrating out.
Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad said the redevelopment work will be completed in the next three years. The
proposal for giving houses to 3,000 policemen, retired police and those who are staying here prior to 2010 are also included in the redevelopment plan, the minister said.
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