Pavements for slums, roads for kids

So much for chief minister Ashok Chavan’s much-hyped encroachment-removal drive. It seems the authorities are simply not interested in coming to the aid of law-abiding citizens. DNA highlights yet another instance of official apathy and brazen disregard of all norms.

Location
Versova telephone exchange junction. The area, from where the arterial road to Lokhandwala passes, has for five years been a shelter for over 100 slum dwellers.

Ground reality
Pavements are meant for pedestrians, but here, one will find a herd of cattle tied to stakes like electricity poles. Tents are littered along the stretch, leaving no space for walkers. Several complaints have been registered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but action is yet to be initiated. The ultimate irony is that the Lokhandwala police station is just round the bend.

The area, which is chock-a-block with cars and buses, has two schools. But because the pavements are occupied, the students have no option but to negotiate for space on the road with the traffic — a dangerous pursuit. “Although the stretch is buzzing with vehicles, the students have no option other than walking on the road,” says a concerned Priya Rao, who has two children studying in one of the schools.

Sense of defeat
Citizens’ groups, who have been fighting with the BMC over the encroachments for five years now, say it is a lost cause. “Last year, civic officials surveyed the area thrice. But no respite has been provided to the pedestrians yet,” says Madhav Limaye, president, Lokhandwala Complex Advanced Locality Management (ALM). “This year, once again we have asked the ward officers to take stock of the situation. But the slum dwellers continue living here.”

Civic words
The BMC maintains that the slums are periodically demolished, but keep coming up. “We send teams to destroy the slums, but it’s of no use. The people simply put the tents back,” says a senior civic official.

Deputy municipal commissioner (special) RB Bhosale thinks he has a solution to the problem: “The ALM has to support the BMC. The problem can be eradicated with its support. It needs to be monitored that the slum dwellers don’t return after they are evicted.
“We will also rope in the traffic police for monitoring.”

Victims of circumstance
“The area is an eyesore and is bang on the main road. Political patronage is evident,” says Rishi Aggarwal, an environment activist.

But the slum dwellers have a sorry tale to tell. “We don’t enjoy staying here. We sleep on the road, we adjust with meagre resources. No one thinks about us. Everyone wants to throw us away,” says Savitra Hingole, a slum dweller.

The problem, there for long, is crying for a solution
Encroachment is a big problem in the city and I don’t think anything can be done about it. The authorities cannot do anything about cleaning up the city and I think they should now just declare that they have failed, because if there was a solution to this problem, then it should have come years ago. It is nothing but a cat-mouse game wherein the authorities clean the city of encroachments and the very next day they come back. Therefore, I think the government should just make it open for anyone in the city to build a house wherever they want — soon we’ll have slums in the middle of the road. Neither civic officials nor politicians really want to make Mumbai an encroachment-free city. The only way we can achieve it is through allotting this work to a special task force.
—Adolf D’Souza, Juhu corporator