A large number of people participated in the Silent Human Chain protest on Sunday organised by Advocate Sagar Devre to prevent the PAP project from coming up on the land near Kelkar College in Mulund East. Devre, who has filed a PIL in the Mumbai High Court seeking termination of the project, is the convenor of the protest.
Protestors came out on the streets
Mulundkars came out on the streets to participate in the Muk Manavi Sakhali - the Silent Human Chain - to save their city against two projects - a PAP project by MCGM which proposes to build 7,439 homes for people who have illegally occupied footpaths and nullahs of Mumbai and more than four lakh homes for rehabilitation of people displaced by the Dharavi redevelopment plan. People from all walks of life and age groups came out to participate in the protest.
Besides residents from Mulund east and west, over 200 people also came in buses from Hari Om Nagar where a major part of the PAP rehabilitation project has been announced by the state government on 83 acres of land.
Protestors turned out in large numbers to hold a silent human chain lining both sides of the road near Sambhaji ground in Mulund East, holding placards with slogans like "PAP hatao Mulund bachao", "Stop the PAP project, else do not come seeking votes," "Mulundkars have decided to shun elections."
VGP
"No political party involved in this agitation"
"The project will put an unreasonable burden on Mulund's civic sources and infrastructure. No political party is involved in this agitation, it was organised and carried out only by citizens of Mulund who will be ultimately affected by the project," Devre said while addressing the crowd.
Vijay Gohil
"The projects are not at all justifiable for even the people for whom these are constructed as it will be very difficult for them to maintain homes in such high-rise towers. They will sell or rent these homes illegally and again set up houses on footpaths and nullahs," said Mulund resident Gangadhar Tulsankar, an active participant of the agitation and one of the speakers who addressed the protestors assembled on Sambhaji ground at the culmination of the silent human chain protest.
VGP
"Mulund is an area of higher middle class people and paying heavy income tax to the government and utilising their hard earned money for these kinds of projects will be injustice on their part,” said a lady who had turned up on a Sunday morning to form a Silent Human Chain.
Over the last many years Mulund East has been deprived of civil amenities like parks, hospital, petrol pump etc. "It will be better if a nature park is constructed on the site and indigenous trees planted for the citizens of Mulund east which is in need of a green lung," said another participant,
Madan Patil Senior Inspector, Navghar Road, who was overseeing the law and order situation at the site, said, "The protest was by and large peaceful."
