Gaothan heads to stir up an agitation against BMC DP 2034

In response to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) draft Development Plan 2034 (DP), which has allegedly missed marking several goathans and koliwadas of Mumbai, a confederation of all the heads of city’s gaothans has decided to agitate in protest.

Heads from about 80 prominent gaothans in the city, some of which have not been marked in the DP, will meet at St. Michael Church, Mahim on June 10, to decide the course of action for the protest against what they term BMC’s ‘step motherly treatment’ of the city’s traditional settlements.

Vivian D’Souza, president of the Bombay East India Association said, “We are going to launch a strong agitation against the civic body this time. Despite the promises it made to us after the earlier DP was scrapped, the new DP has failed to address the problems of Gaothans.” Mr D’Souza said the residents will take the BMC to court over the issue this time, as the process of suggestions and objections did not yield any results the last time.

D’Souza also pointed out that not only have some gaothans been left out, even the ones marked have not been given appropriate status. Gaothans have been given an FSI of 1.5 for development, as long as the building falls on a street wider than nine meters. According to Mr D’Souza, all the houses in gaothans have exhausted that FSI already, and they will not be able to exploit it. Moreover, lanes in gaothans are as narrow as five to seven meters, which hardly leave scope for this clause at all.

Brian Pereira, a representative of the Marol gaothan, which has not been marked on the DP maps at all said, “BMC’s new Draft DP has treated gaothans like slums, but even slums are better off. We have a house in our village, which was built in 1900. We have spent money to maintain it. The BMC has not even made any basic arrangements to maintain the old settlements.”

The confederation is headed by Watchdog foundation, a city-based NGO headed by Godfrey Pimenta.