Employees As Well As Slum-Dwellers Want Land To Be Used For Housing
Mumbai : Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s ambitious plan for redevelopment of Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) land is embroiled in a two-pronged controversy. Around 1000 MbPT employees carried out a rally on Tuesday to demand that Port employees and pensioners get their adequate share of land for housing. On the other hand, slum-dwellers and NGOs are up in arms against the government too since 150 shanties were demolished at a 12 hours’ notice in Mazgaon last week. About 100 other families have also been served notices and they are expecting the hammer any time soon.
Gadkari had announced two weeks ago that some of MbPT’s activities will be shifted to other ports to free up land for the city. The hundreds of hectares thus freed will then be used for construction of a convention centre, parks, passenger service terminals, floating hotels and marina for anchoring private yachts. Besides, a giant ferris wheel has been proposed here on the lines of the London Eye.
However, what seems amiss is the consideration for the slum dwellers that have been working as informal labour for MbPT and have been staying here for decades, as well for the MbPT employees who want housing facilities on this freed land.
On January 8, about 150 shanties on Powder Bunder in Mazgaon were demolished at a 12 hours’ notice. The notice, which was in English, was pasted on one of the shanties on the sea-side. It was missed by most of these dwellers and the ones who saw it could not read English. The Central government needs this land for the marina and yacht club, which will cater to the uber rich. “We were not even allowed time to collect our belongings,” said a weeping Surekha Walmiki, who has been living in Powder Bunder for about 40 years. “My grandchildren were born here. Now, I have sent my family back to our village in Uttar Pradesh. Par mai toh yahi marungi (but I will die here),” she asserted.
According to Walmiki, they would have vacated the shanties had they been given intimation. Ram Hazoor, who has been living in Powder Bunder since 1982, is also homeless now. He has incurred a loss of Rs 20,000.
Besides, a doorstep school being run by an NGO here was also demolished, its teachers allegedly beaten up. Apart from the 150 shanties, about a 100 others have been told verbally to vacate their shanties while 70 others have been served a written notice on Tuesday.
“An MbPT official approached us three months ago, got a form filled and said that our houses will be safe. We now understand that they have duped us,” said Mohammed Farman, who has been staying here for 16 years.
“The problem is that MbPT does not have a rehabilitation policy. The newly set-up Mumbai Port Land Development Committee has come up with a draft report for this rehabilitation policy which is being kept under the wraps. We demand that the report be brought in public domain, since that will be the first step towards having the policy for MbPT land,” said Mayuresh Bhadsavle, a member of the NGO Hamara Shehar Vikas Niyojan which has been following the issue.
On the other hand, MbPT employees are opposed to the idea of rehabilitation on MbPT land.
“We don’t object to their rehabilitation but only demand that it be done somewhere else. Land is the MbPT’s biggest source of revenue after cargo, it should neither be redeveloped nor be used for rehabilitation of slum-dwellers. If at all the land is freed, it should be used to house the 11,000 MbPT employees,” said Sudhakar Apraj, general secretary of the Mumbai Port Trust, Dock and General Employees’ Union.
But Ravi Parmar, chairman of MbPT, expressed his helplessness when asked about rehabilitation, either of slum-dwellers or of employees.
“None of the Central government agencies have a rehabilitation policy for illegal squatters. Besides, we had given them enough time to relocate. As of the notices being in English, I will have to check the law. If the law provides for bilingual notices, the same will be served.”
Parmar denied that any slum-dwellers were beaten up during the demolition drive.
