After 24 years, shanties to make way for road construction

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday cleared the way for a 60-feet DP road in Everard Nagar in Sion, which had been held up for around 24 years due to an illegal nexus between slumlords, local corporator and municipal officers. The court referred to the slum dwellers plea as “an attempt by squatters and land grabbers to prolong their unlawful occupation”. While holding the assistant municipal commissioner of the ward guilty of contempt of court, a division bench of justice AS Gadkari and justice Kamal Khata on Thursday ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to remove the remaining shanties that had encroached upon the land acquired for the DP road and expeditiously complete the road work. The society alleged that around March 2000, the patch was acquired for the DP road, but soon, thereafter, the acquired land was encroached upon by slumlords and while the BMC did not act on complaints lodged by the society against the encroachers, the civic body constructed a public toilet for the benefit of the slum dwellers. These illegal occupants hold the law-abiding citizens to ransom.” The court also held the ward officer of L ward, Ajit Kumar Ambi, guilty of contempt of court for flouting 2015 and later court orders for demolition of the shanties and asked the high court registrar to issue him summons to remain present before the bench with his reply on the quantum of punishment on January 27, when the court will take up the matter for further hearing.