Residents refuse to vacate 400 rickety buildings
As the deadline for vacating these buildings by the end of May is well over, the BMC has now planned to evict them in June.
Mumbai: While the monsoon is knocking on the doors of the city, residents of 400 dilapidated buildings face a threat to their lives as they continue to live in these rickety structures. As the deadline for vacating these buildings by the end of May is well over, the BMC has now planned to evict them in June.
As part of its monsoon preparations, the civic body had announced 619 buildings across the city as extremely dangerous i.e. category C1. To avoid human loss in case of any calamity, the civic body had decided to vacate the residents of these buildings before the end of May. However, 427 buildings are yet to be vacated, said civic officials.
A senior civic official admitted that the BMC had missed the deadline for vacating 400 dilapidated buildings.
“Despite all-round attempts, residents refuse to vacate these buildings. Looking at the probable threat to their lives, we have issued eviction notices to them. Despite this, if the residents are not willing to vacate their homes, electricity and water connection of these buildings will be disconnected and if needed, police support will be taken to vacate the buildings,” said Madhukar Magar, assistant commissioner (removal of encroachments).
A resident living in a dilapidated building in Dadar said, “It is difficult to find alternate accommodation in the city. Besides, we will also have to relocate our entire belongings to another place. Since it is not possible, our fate is now in God’s hands.”
According to civic data, there are 619 C1 category buildings, which are extremely dangerous and need to be vacated immediately. Among them, 72 have been vacated, of which, 10 have obtained a stay from court.
Of the remaining 547 buildings, 147 have been involved in court cases and 31 buildings have been referred to the technical advisory committee (TAC) for its recommendation.
Furthermore, water and electricity connections of 120 buildings have been severed, whereas 168 buildings will face similar action in the coming days.