Move to shift Borivli Park slumdwellers outside city flayed

Feb 3: The Nivara Hakka Suraksha Samiti NHSS, a non-governmental organisation, has condemned the state government's decision to shift o...

Feb 3: The Nivara Hakka Suraksha Samiti NHSS, a non-governmental organisation, has condemned the state government8217;s decision to shift over two lakh slumdwellers from Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivli, to proposed new locations in Thane, Kalyan and Vasai and demanded that the slumdwellers be rehabilitated within city limits as per the 1995 government policy of protecting slumdwellers8217; rights.

P K Das, vice-president of NHSS, said shifting of the slumdwellers to remote locations outside the city would be akin to the policy adopted by A R Antulay when he was Chief Minister. 8220;In 1980, Antulay evicted slumdwellers from Mumbai and left them in Panvel, Pune and other cities along the highway,8221; he said, adding, 8220;The HC had then ruled that no slumdweller should be shifted out of city limits.8221;

The NHSS will file an intervention plea on Monday, February 8, to fight what they call the state8217;s new 8220;ridiculous8221; proposal. The state, under pressure to act swiftly as the matter regarding rehabilitation ispending with High Court, had earlier made unimplementable proposals like denotifying forest land to accommodate slumdwellers.

After the Bombay Environmental Action Group BEAG filed a writ petition for clearing the park from encroachers, the HC in May 1997 had passed an order directing the state to rehabilitate the slumdwellers outside the park within 18 months8217; time.

Last year, the state had also told the court it would shift the slumdwellers to a plot in Malad. 8220;It later turned out that the state was planning to land-fill a creek and would be violating Coastal Regulation Zone CRZ rules. The proposal was stayed by HC,8221; said housing activist Marukh Adenwala.

The court, yesterday, had stated that a committee comprising of forests and revenue, and representatives of the petitioners be set up. The committee will determine the eligibility of the slum dwellers and will verify the claims of the dwellers. The court said that the committee should submit the minutes on February 8 and on the basis of theminutes a formal order would be passed on that day.

In their intervention plea, NHSS plans to first suggest all demolition in the park be stayed till rehabilitation plans are drawn by the government. Das informed they would also suggest that some representatives of the slum dwellers be part of the committee being set up. The committee, he said, should first examine the proposed site of rehabilitation to ensure no condition is violated. 8220;We must know if the title of the land is clear and confirm that there are no reservations on it,8221; he said. But he stressed the best solution would be to implement former chief secretary DT Joseph8217;s committee report.

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Joseph, who was then chief executive of Slum Rehabilitation Authority SRA, had headed a high-powered committee in 1996, whose report had recommended that slumdwellers be rehabilitated on the wasteland on the periphery of National Park. 8220;The wasteland on the borders is already barren and depleted,8221; said Das, as the land was exposed to illegal quarryingbefore. If the slumdwellers who now occupy 1,000-odd acres can be rehabilitated on 250 acres along the border, it would also act as a boundary wall for the park to prevent further encroachments.

At present, BMC is carrying out a demolition drive in the park, and nearly 3,000 hutments were razed last month. A Samajwadi Party spokesperson alleged BMC has also been demolishing authentic pre-1995 hutments. SP leaders also said a survey undertaken by forest officials to number pre-1995 hutments has been done haphazardly and is incomplete. Many hutments have not been numbered, and occupants live in constant fear of being displaced, they charged.

Meanwhile, only about one kilometer of boundary wall has been constructed along the park at Malad despite the court8217;s order to fence the park periphery. Forest officials, however, indulge in corrupt practices by demanding money to let a hutment be on the outer side of the wall, said Marukh. That is why even the small stretch of the wall is zig-zagged, sheadded.