Demonstration to protest SC verdict on Mill land

Mumbai, Mar 14 (UNI) Around 500 people belonging to Mumbai People Action Committee (MPAC)-- a forum of NGO, professionals, mill workers, trade unions, members of Girni Kamgar Sangarsh Samiti and TUCI Maharashtra Commitee held a demonstration at Azad Maidan here today against the recent Supreme Court verdit on the mill land issue.

The demonstrators said that the pex court's verdiet was not in the interest of the people of Mumbai and demanded that the State government enact a legislation to protect the interest of the mill workers by giving a third of the mill land for the workers' families.

The demonstrators alleged that politions were colluding with the builders and demanded that it stopped immediately.

''The implications of the Supreme Court verdict are far reaching.

As such it is a violation of the basic property law wherein a person can not sell what he does not own. The 600 acres of land in the heart of Mumbai is occupied by textile mills, most of which have been closed. Much of this land was leased to the mill owners or sold at very low rates for the purpose of starting mills over a century ago. The land could not be sold until 1991 when the law was amended then to mainly for reviving the sick mills'', MPAC activist Shanti Patel said.

The demonstrators plan to petition Chief Minsiter Vilasrao Deshmukh soon with a plea that the land should be utilised in providing affordable housing to the mill workers, rehabilitating slum dwellers, building low income group houses and creating green spaces.

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