Mumbai, Apr 27 (TOI): The Bombay high court on Wednesday took strong exception to alleged interference by housing minister Prakash Mehta, as claimed by BMC, in demolition of slums near the main Tansa pipeline at Vidyavihar.
Hearing a PIL filed by Janhit Manch seeking action against slums on top of and near the city's main water pipelines, a division bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Anil Menon said the BMC officer who "boldly" named the minister required protection and directed that no coercive step be taken against him without the court's orders.
In 2009, the HC had directed BMC to remove the slums and keep a 10-metre buffer zone around pipelines. The demolition is being carried out in four phases — phase 1 was supposed to have been completed by March 8. As the deadline was not met, the court, during the last hearing, directed BMC to place on record steps taken. Later, hydraulic engineer Ashokkumar Tawadia filed an affidavit seeking extension of the deadline for phase II to December 31, 2017. For phases III and IV, the corporation sought that deadlines for removal of slums be extended to June 30, 2018.
Tawadia said around 550 hutments were removed in Vidyavihar (E) in December and slum dwellers were rehabilitated in buildings for the project-hit, built by HDIL in Kurla. Further demolitions could not take place due to civic polls. BMC then scheduled removal of illegal structures on April 15 and planned to shift affected slum-dwellers to the project affected persons housing project in Mahul.
"The N ward had made all arrangements," the affidavit said, adding that senior inspector of Tilak Nagar police station was asked to provide protection to the demolition squad. "Housing minister Prakash Mehta was also present at Tilak Nagar police station to oppose the proposed demolition. He opined that he was trying to get the PAPs at HDIL Kohinoor for Tansa hutment dwellers and till then no demolition should be taken," the affidavit said. The officer mentioned that police "refused to give bandobast for no visible reason. This is non-cooperative attitude shown by police authorities by agreeing fully to provide bandobast on the given date and withdrawing on due demolition date under some pressure..." Tawadia said demolitions could not be carried out due to police withdrawing protection at the eleventh hour.
The HC directed the senior inspector of Tilak Nagar police station to be present in court with the "station diary" on Thursday. It also requested state advocate general Rohit Deo to assist the court.
TOI's calls and text messages to minister Prakash Mehta went unanswered.