Locals’ threats stall BMC demolition drive

Over two weeks after Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief Ajoy Mehta passed orders to demolish all huts above 14 feet, only three attempts have been made by ward offices to demolish such shanties across the city. Officials have admitted that it has been impossible to demolish any huts, owing to severe political pressure and threat of violence from the locals. The BMC is now going to request the police to dedicate exclusive staff for protection of civic workers on field for demolition.

Meanwhile, Mr Mehta has decided to write to the government seeking legal protection for civic officials on field duty. Mr Mehta said, “I am going to write to the government asking for legal protection for municipal workers not only in the BMC, but across the state, to enable them to carry out their jobs without hindrances of these kind.”

The civic body attempted to demolish shanties in the Shivaji Nagar-Govandi area of the M East ward on Wednesday and were thwarted by a large mob that began to pelt stones at the BMC officials. While officials were forced to withdraw their machinery from the area, the police had to resort to lathi charge to control the situation. Ten people including five policemen were injured during the incident.

In another incident last week, two officials of the K (East) ward were allegedly beaten up by NCP workers, when they attempted to demolish around 12 huts in the Andheri area. A civic official said, “We have managed to demolish shanties only in one area, in the H (East) ward, in the Bandra area. Residents were scared there due to the Behrampada building collapse incident that killed six children. As they feared the same thing would happen to them, we faced no resistance.”

A civic official quoted above said, “The moment civic officials start demolishing structures, large mobs of residents gather and begin protesting the demolition. In one case, political party workers beat BMC workers. Civic officials have begun to refuse going on field for demolition.”