Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Landslide fear fails to remove residents
THANE: Despite notices being served, the residents residing above the Parsik tunnel continue to live in shaky ground as both Thane Municipal Corporation and the forest department refuse the take action.
The authorities gave monsoon and lack of rehabilitation options as reasons for not taking action.
On June 21, a portion of the road above the Parsik tunnel in the hilly area of Uday Nagar caved in, leading to cracks in the retaining wall of the mountain.
The corporation had assured to cut the water and electricity connections of these slums at the earliest after the landslide threat of June 21, nothing though is done on this front.
The TMC also alleged that they had written to the forest department seeking permission to demolish the slums.
However, there was no reply. The corporation said the residents have even refused to accept the notices send to them.
Sunil Chavan, acting civic c o m m i s s i o n e r, s a i d : “We had issued notices. However, people have refused to accept these notices. We are working on finding a way to amicably remove these residents. We are still undecided if we are ready to take the rehabilitation responsibility of these slums. If we do not have the capacity to rehabilitate them, we cannot remove them in monsoon. However some action will surely be taken against them after monsoon.
He said the notices will be forcefully imposed on the residents if they do not accept it.
“The land is forest land and we had written a letter to them asking permission to demolish the slums; however we haven’t received any reply from them. We are at present working on the construction of the safety wall which the railways have recommended. We will need a block for the same,” said Chavan.
The forest authority claimed that they have served notices to the residents. Kishore Thackray, deputy forest conservator, said: “Our range forest officer had done a survey of the area and served notices to the people saying that the area is prone to landslides in monsoon. However, it is monsoon and we cannot remove people from their homes in rain. We will initiate action after monsoon.”