Protest against Malad demolition

Around 500 people staged a rasta roko at Saparewadi Madh in Malad (west) on Thursday in protest against the demolition of 20 structures in the area,during which civic engineers appointed to oversee the operation were allegedly attacked.

Engineers from P(north) ward office had gone to the area with protection from Malwani police around 12.15 pm to demolish the illegal residential structures. “The residents intercepted our machines and officers,complaining that they have constructed the structures recently. In the past two months,we have issued at least six stop-work notices under Section 354(A) of the MMC Act. They didn’t evacuate. All these structures are unoccupied and no families live there. This was planned by the contractor and the land mafia,” a civic official said.

The official said the people threatened to immolate themselves if the engineers went ahead with the demolition. The engineers have filed a FIR. “Only one structure could be demolished. We went back to office.”