Solution is cluster devpt: officials
Two families still trapped under the rubble, even as over 200 officials continue the rescue operation
MUMBAI: The vicious circle in Mumbra continues. Illegal but low-cost homes continue to lure poor people who risk their lives to get a roof over their head.
The sixth such accident to happen in the district in the past two decades on Saturday points to builders promoting the mushrooming of residential buildings without any concern for the safety of residents who happen to stay there.
The residents of No 5 in Banno Complex, Jeevanbaugh, had each paid Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh for each flat as the price was reasonably low and they could have a roof over their head.
Khalil Shaikh, a resident of the building, said: “I had booked my 450 sq feet flat for just Rs 2 lakh in 2003, a year before the building was constructed. The building was illegal but we were not aware that its construction would be so poor. Now we have nowhere to go.”
More than 90 per cent of constructions in Mumbra are illegal.
There are 250,000 illegal constructions in Thane, said the guardian minister of the district Ganesh Naik.
According to Thane Municipal Corporation records, there are 2,000 illegal constructions in Mumbra and 5,500 all over Thane city.
Civic commissioner Aseem Gupta said: “The illegal constructions have come up in Mumbra in the past 25 years. Nearly 80 per cent of the area is engulfed by them and it is not possible to take action against all of them. People themselves oppose when we go to demolish them. The only solution is replanning and re-development of the town. People should support this or else we will have to force them to abide by the new town plan for Mumbra.”
Naik said: “We had a meeting with the government on Friday to give four FSI to Mumbra. The meeting ended on a positive note and in the next three months, a proposal on cluster development will be presented to the state for approval.”
Thane mayor Harishchandra Patil said people were not ready to move out of the illegal and dangerous buildings.
“We had recently shifted people from 58 extremely dilapidated building to MMRDA rental homes,” said Patil.
“The state government should take some decision regarding cluster development. The corporation demolishes illegal constructions every day in Mumbra except on Fridays. So it is unfair to say that the corporation does nothing,” he added.
Thane MLA Jitendra Awhad blamed the government for the dangerous situation.
“The government is not taking any decision on cluster development and the people have to bear the brunt of it,” the legislator said.
Mean Shiv Sena MLA Eknath Shinde threatened to go on a strike if the state government desisted from implementing the cluster development policy soon.