MUMBAI, February 16: January 15: A large stretch of Colaba coast near Ganesh Murthi Nagar slums is reclaimed overnight in a clandestine operation by land sharks.January 16: Local corporator Puran Doshi lodges a complaint about the CRZ violation with the Collector's office and intimates the police chowkey at the Ganesh Murti Nagar slums about the encroachment. He also submits to the police the names of three persons who supervised the late-night operation and the licence numbers of seven trucks involved in it.February 2: Express Newsline carries a front-page report about the CRZ violation, complete with a picture of the site. Both police and collectorate officials go on record in the report saying that they have taken note of the complaint and action against the guilty would be initiated soon.February 16: Slumdwellers continue to bring in the debris and cut mangroves for further encroachment. No arrests have been made so far and the collector, who has written a letterto the Colaba police, claims it's upto them to take action now.One month after a clutch of small-time leaders smothered a huge stretch of mangroves in Colaba by dumping 70 truck-loads of construction debris on them authorities are claiming that ``process is on'' to bring the culprits to book. And as the buck is passed between departments and offices, hutments have started erupting on the reclaimed land like a rash.Collector of Greater Mumbai, Sanjay Chahande, clearly sees no dereliction of duty on the part of his office. ``The dumping took place on the night of January 15 and we immediately informed the Colaba police. An offence was lodged on February 9. Now it is for the police to book the culprits,'' Chahande told Express Newsline today. He, however, expressed his helplessness over the fact that the sea coast was fast being encroached upon. His excuse: ``These people (encroachers) usually work in the night or during state holidays, thereby making it difficult to stop such activity.''Thepolice have their own reasons to justify inaction. Senior Inspector of Colaba Police station, Shankar Puri, said progress on the case was slow mainly because the investigating officer (IO) Bhaskar Sawant had reported sick!For the Secretary of the Department of Energy & Environment Satish Tripathi, too its seems like just
