Taking a cue from the Quit India movement, the 81st anniversary of which is being observed across the country, leaders cutting across party lines along with local residents gave a clarion call of “Adani Go Back” while protesting against the Dharavi redevelopment project. Notably, even MLAs from the ruling alliance took part in the agitation held under the banner 'Dharavi Bachao Andolan (DBA)' on Wednesday.
PWP women workers in the protest | Salman Ansari/FPJ
Local BJP leader joins protest
Residents and local political leaders are up in arms over the manner in which the Maharashtra government awarded the futuristic project to Adani Properties. Ramakant Gupta from NGO Yuva Jan Manch, who is also a local BJP leader, joined the protest. “Without any public consultation, the government has gone ahead to award the project. The last discussion with the state government was held during the tenure of Maha Vikas Aghadi dispensation headed by Uddhav Thackeray. There is stoic silence to all the communications and attempts by the DBA representatives to reach out to the current government,” said DBA co-convenor Rajendra Korde.
Similarly, former Shiv Sena MLA and DBA leader Baburao Mane said, “We demand 405 sq ft homes (after redevelopment) and a fresh survey of the area. The last survey was done over one-and-a-half decades ago in 2007. Since then, the dynamics of the population has undergone a sea change.”
Master plan not shared with Dharavi residents
What is also surprising is that no master plan has been shared with the several lakh Dharavi residents hence they are clueless about their alternative accommodation once they are asked to shift when the project takes off. They want no cut-off date for rehabilitating the existing inhabitants without any cost on the lines of Mumbai Urban Transport Project and Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project.
The agitators have listed 17 demands, including protection of Maharashtra nature park, protection of rights and commercial units of all cottage industries as well as shops, allocation of corpus fund to the existing housing societies, rehabilitation of families on rent on the lines of rental housing scheme.
