Paved with filth

Every weekend, the pavements of Wadala are busy places with slum dwellers carrying out illegal constructions and additions to their houses. Chemists, dentists, marble shop owners vie with each other to build bigger offices8217;.

With this comes the resultant problems of less water supply, weak power to actual residents, piling up ofgarbage for weeks at times and the resultant stench making walking in Wadala a virtual nightmare. Faced with these stupendous problems, municipal authorities are constantly quot;looking into the mattersquot;.

They have found out easy solutions to the garbage, stench and filthy slums 8211; a cleanliness awareness8217; programme for the slum dwellers which will teach them what it means to be clean 8211; something even the jhopadpatti walas are taking with a large pinch of salt.

Residents have been complaining for years about the encroachments on the railway property next to the Mumbai Port Trust MPT tracks and under the Wadala flyover, but to no effect.

Illegal construction activities are carried out almost every weekend in the thickly populated slums on the pavement along R A Kidwai RAK road parallel to the railway tracks in Wadala West.

According to M Mahesh, a resident, 8220;The slums spill on to the road at times.8221; Illegal commercial establishments of all kinds 8212; including a restaurant, garages,tailoring shops and even a marble factory opposite the Lijjat Papad office 8212; flourish on the pavements.

8220;The slums have left no pavement space for pedestrians. Also, the illegal tapping of water and electricity by slum dwellers has resulted in a reduction in the daily water supply to legal residents,8221; adds C Anand, another resident.

To all these problems, the F/North ward officer S K Karvande has only one answer: 8220;I8217;ll look into the matter8221;.

8220;New shanties continue to spring up despite Thackeray8217;s assurance to the contrary,8221; adds another flustered resident, Vilas Joshi. 8220;On the RAK road for instance, illegal extensions to the existing hutments start on Friday nights and are complete by Sunday. Most hutments are double-storeyed,8221; he adds.

Harassed residents allege that while the civic authorities seem to be in a state of suspended animation, corporators seem to humour them as they form a sizable votebank.

Apart from overcrowding the pavements, the slums also add to the filth. Raju, a taxidriver staying in Wadala, complains of choking of public toilets by slum dwellers.

Karvande however pleads that his hands are tied as the state government has legalised slums existing prior to 1995. 8220;Most of the 24 registered slums in Wadala are quite old,8221; he adds, denying that any new hutments or extensions have come up.

8220;We will be starting a cleanliness awareness programme in the slums. We have identified two slums, the huge Korba-Mithaghar in Wadala East and Ganesh Nagar.

Residents warn that the sprawling Korba-Mithaghar slum behind the BPT colony with a population of nearly 50,000, is growing at such a rapid pace that unless action is taken it will soon become another Dharavi.

8220;The garbage lies piled up for 15 days at times outside the slum before the BMC trucks carry it away,8221; claims Sanjay Jadhav who stays nearby. Karvande admits that slums are thickly populated and do not have a proper drainage system. He says that BMC is taking all possible precautions to avoid flooding during themonsoon. 8220;However, there is nothing much the administration can do because the area is low-lying,8221; he says.

These problems apart, Wadala residents are witnessing a rise in the crime graph of their locality during the past three years.

In Wadala East, where slums abound and exist in close proximity to the railway tracks of the MPT and Harbour line, looting of goods wagons is a regular phenomenon.

The major operators are men from colonies like the Bangalipura slum who, it is alleged, work in cohorts with the railway staff.

Rajesh Somani, a resident of Wadala since the 50s, also adds, 8220;If you park your car for barely half an hour on RAK road, your car stereo is likely to be stolen.8221; The RAK road police station however denies that crime has increased. A duty officer there informs that there have been a few cases of theft but he dismisses them as being minor.

While the residents are doing their little bit, it is finally up to the civic authorities to save Wadala. If the authorities keep fiddling,it won8217;t be long before Wadala sinks under the collective weight of the slums, grime and official apathy.