Slum fire outside handiwork: report

Huts built with bamboo poles, plastic sheets and gunny bags caught fire immediately. However, only 15 structures were demolished by the squad accompanied by a SRP platoon and the police force. While almost everyone lost their belongings in the fire, no lives were lost. The state government blamed the residents calling them arsonists8217;. 8220;This is definitely not an accident, or arson by the residents. It is more convincing to believe that people would not speed up the demolition of their own houses,8221; the report has said. The slums existed on a plot of prime land measuring 7500 sq. mts. with the Backbay BEST depot on one side and the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority8217;s transit camp on the other. 8220;Never before was the destruction so complete as this time. Though they had been prepared to repair the damage inflicted by the squads on their homes and belongings, nobody expected to be left only with ash,8221; says the report. A fortnight after the fire, people continue to live in the open, with no means to rebuild their huts. That the fire was spread deliberately, perhaps with the state machinery backing it, is also based on the fact that despite two fire stations closeby, the first fire brigade arrived an hour after the fire broke out, eye witnesses said.

The official 8220;indepth enquiry8221; into the incident is not yet complete. The Cuffe Parade police station is still enquiring into the incident. 8220; As a compensation, the Sanghatana has demanded that the slum residents be granted legal tenure on the land on which their houses stood and should be vacated only by offering alternative space. 8220;It is high time the Govt treats all such persons as homeless or landless persons and not as encroachers8217;,8221; the report felt. The enquiry team consisted of Justice Hosbet Suresh Retd., Neha Madhiwalla, a researcher, Nivedita Rao, lecturer and Anthony Samy of the Sanghatana.