Govt faults gave birth to slums……..Sandeep Ashar
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has blamed policies adopted by the state for the mushrooming of slums along water pipelines.
In order to remove these encroachments and secure water mains, the civic body has now demanded financial assistance from the Maharashtra government. It wants the state to bear a share of the cost incurred on the rehabilitation of slum dwellers.
Blaming the state policies for the proliferation of slums in and around pipelines, the civic hydraulic department has submitted a proposal to the state government, asking it to foot 50% of the rehabilitation cost.
The proposal, ratified by the municipal commissioner’s office, has been submitted to the urban development department, a senior civic official said. A copy has also been marked to the chief secretary’s office, the official added.
Close to 62 km length of Mumbai’s water pipeline network has been identified by the department as encroached.
A survey conducted by the department revealed the presence of 15,743 structures along the pipeline. Nearly 1.42 lakh sq meters area in and around the water mains was identified as encroached.
The Bombay high court last year asked the municipal corporation to take up a time-bound programme to secure the water mains against encroachments.
The court directive came during a hearing of an ongoing public interest litigation filed by NGO Janhit Manch regarding the issue.
Even though the BMC initiated the work for the removal of encroachments in January last year, less than 10% has been cleared so far, a senior hydraulic department official said.
In a year and a half, the BMC was barely able to demolish illegal hutments around water mains in Bandra and near the international airport in Andheri.
A reason for the slow progress was the fact that over 55% of these slum structures have been built before 2000, and the civic body needs to provide them alternative housing before demolishing hutments.
A department engineer blamed the state’s decision to extend the datum line up to January 12,000 for a swell in the number of those eligible for rehabilitation.
While the BMC has already begun identifying plots for the rehabilitation purpose, it says the project will require financial assistance from the state government.
In its proposal for funding assistants, the civic body has quoted the findings of a high-power committee, led by former chief secretary BG Deshmukh, which, in 1994, asked the state government to financially assist the BMC for creation of civic amenities.
The committee had similarly blamed state policies for the coming up of slums.