28 February,2014 10:52 AM IST | | Sujit Mahamulkar
Despite coming up on a Coastal Regulation Zone and a No Development Zone, the illegal shanties of Ganpat Patil Nagar slum in Mumbai's suburbs have not been razed since 1997
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation can rest now. It no longer has to demolish the shanties at Ganpat Patil Nagar in Dahisar (West), as the state government is planning to legalise all slums that came up before the year 2000.
The shanties came up in the year 1997 on a land deemed to be a Coastal Regulation Zone and a No Development Zone. File pic
The shanties came up in the year 1997 on a land deemed to be a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and a No Development Zone (NDZ), located on New Link Road. mid-day had reported on BMC's attempts to demolish the hutments since 1997 and how the dwellers simply built the homes again (âFor 16 years, BMC has been trying to demolish these slums', December 14).
State government is planning on legalising all slums which came up before the year 2000
The state government has already legalised slums that came up before 1995 - about 150 of them being at Ganpat Patil Nagar. This cut-off year will mostly be revised to the year 2000. According to the BMC, about 8,000 hutments in this area would benefit from this extension.
mid-day report on December 14, 2013
The BMC, on an average, carried out about eight drives per year to get rid of the slums. About 200-500 huts came under the bulldozer routinely, but the entire illegal settlement could never be removed. The state government's intention has upset local residents' associations, who called it a proposal to capture votes. "Firstly the government should not extend the cut-off date.
Secondly, if the government wants to get slum dwellers' votes, they should rehabilitate them in the interior parts of the state. This decision (to legalise the slums) will harm the environment, because Ganpat Patil Nagar has settled on marshy land, which is under the CRZ," said Harishchandra Pandey, member of the New Link Road Residents Forum.
However, the civic body says it will follow the rules. "If the state government decides to extend the cut-off to the year 2000, we have to follow the decision," said Santosh Dhonde, assistant municipal commissioner of the concerned (R/North) ward.
