Residents of Mumbai's Mohammad Ali Road on demolition drive, 'This is very different from earlier drives’

Tiles and footpaths were destroyed outside Hotel Kalandar. Pic/Atul Kamble

The BMC, on Wednesday, acted against encroachments near Mohammad Ali Road market. Shop owners mentioned that, although the corporation frequently takes action against hawkers, this time they went further by breaking tiles and sunshades. The BMC maintained that the action was part of a deep clean drive.

Following the clash between two communities in Mira Road during the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation took action against encroachments in Naya Nagar, a Muslim-dominated area. Shop owners on Ibrahim Mohamed Merchant Road, near Mohammad Ali Road market, felt that the aggressive action by the BMC was related to the clash. Mohammad Kapil Hussain, a manager of Hotel Kalamdar, said, "The BMC team arrived around 10 am on Wednesday without any notice and started breaking the tiles on the footpath in front of us. There wasn't any encroachment, and people easily walked on it. But they claimed it wasn't in alignment with the road. They broke it haphazardly, and we had to pay Rs 4,500 to clean up the debris today."

Tiles, footpaths destroyed outside Hotel Kalandar. Pics/Atul Kamble

A vegetable vendor on the road mentioned that when the BMC came, they ran away into small lanes. "They do come occasionally, but this time they were not against us. They acted against the big shops and broke their belongings," said the vendor.

A worker at Khwaja Export shared a similar story. "The shop has been here for the last 50 years, but such action wasn't taken earlier. The BMC team came without notice in the early morning. Our owner wasn't here. The team started breaking tiles and an iron grill on the footpath. If they had informed us, we would have removed it ourselves," said one of the workers. An eyewitness, on the condition of anonymity, mentioned that there were a few actions against hawkers, and BMC had previously asked shops to clear the space on footpaths, but this time the team was different, and the action was not only against encroachment but seemed to intend harm to businesses.

The BMC also took action against the famous sweet shop, Suleman Usman Mithaiwala, by removing the shed that was an extension of the shop. Chand Mithaiwala said, "The team started the action without giving any notice. They tore down the sunshade worth Rs 2 lakh. We kept it so that the sunlight did not directly hit the sweets." He refused to comment on whether he thought the action was intentional or not.

Uddhav Chandanshive, an assistant commissioner of B ward, said, "The action has nothing to do with anything else but is part of the deep clean drive. We need to keep footpaths free. There wasn't any need to give notices, as the action was to clear footpaths. On Thursday, we took action against parked vehicles on part of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Road in our ward and the roads near Sandhurst Road station, cleaning the footpaths. The action will continue on other roads in the coming days."

The MBMC had carried out the demolition on Tuesday in Naya Nagar in Mira Road after clashes between two communities over the weekend and during the opening ceremony of the Ram temple.

Jan 23
Day MBMC acted against encroachment in Mira Road