Ashok Chavan blames nexus between police, politicians and officials in BMC for proliferation of slums in Mumbai.
The politician-police-bureaucrat nexus is thwarting Mumbai’s image makeover plan, chief minister Ashok Chavan said.
Directing the civic authorities to launch a demolition drive against illegal encroachments across Mumbai, he asked them to expose the nexus.
“You immediately start the demolition drive and I will ensure government support. There will be no compromise on law enforcement,” Chavan said at an hour-long meeting on Tuesday with top bureaucrats of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
“The illegal encroachment is the result of the strong nexus between politicians, police and bureaucrats in the BMC,” he said. He was discussing the Mumbai makeover plan for 2050.
There are 2.15 lakh encroachments on government land across the city, according to the urban development department. Interestingly, almost 50% of the encroachments have the support of local Congress politicians.
Chavan has often lamented that mega-projects are getting delayed because of Congress members’ intervention to protect illegal slums.
A case in point is the slums adjoining the Mumbai airport. Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel’s efforts for almost ten years to relocate these have come a cropper due to interference of senior Congress leaders Gurudas Kamat and Kripa Shankar.
Both have been demanding the rehabilitation of slum dwellers in the same vicinity on the ground that they are legal residents of city.
Of the total 227 municipal wards, nearly half have encroachments in the form of slums or commercial establishments. Even the areas adjoining railway stations are not spared.
Experts, however, detect political connotations in Chavan’s tough talk. The chief minister is creating a favourable pitch for the Congress before the BMC polls in 2012, they feel.
At present, the corporation is controlled by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party combine. Chavan plans to gain popular support through tough administrative action, say the experts.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are engaged in a power game to control the BMC administration through bureaucrats. Not surprisingly, the local guardian of Mumbai and rural development minister Jayant Patil of the NCP has started finding faults in the working of the civic body.
“The chief minister’s pro-active role in arresting the illegal encroachments is a counter to the anti-migrant campaign launched by MNS chief Raj Thackeray and the NCP ahead of the BMC elections,” said a party insider.
By harping on the illegal encroachment, Chavan wants to show how ineffective the Sena administration has been in the last ten years in BMC.
A senior BJP leader said, “The Sena-BJP has targetted BMC commissioner Swadhin Kshtriya because he is guided by the orders from Mantralaya.” The elected representatives of Sena-BJP feel their recommendations are not adhered as chief minister is interfering in the matters related to BMC functioning.
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