Campa Cola residents fight on, stand before demolition process

, Nov 12: The

compund residents still have a long and arduous battle to face. Refusing to move out of their houses, they may have to lower their swords ultimately, but what lies beyond is unimaginable-homelessness. The tussle over the land started in 2005 when the residents appealed to the court for water connection and regularization. Following this, the court ordered the municipal commissioner to take time-bound action on the case.

Surprisingly, the commissioner, instead of taking an action against the builder issued demolition notices to the 100 odd families that resided above the fifth floors of the buildings in the compound. The builders PSB Construction, Yusuf Patel and BK Gupta had been given the permission to contruct the residential towers not more than five floors. However, flouting the norms they went ahead and built 35 illegal floors across the compund.

The notices were challenged in the civil court and a stay order was issued until the case was lost in the High Court in 2011 and subsequently by the Supreme Court in 2013. The BMC issued a short notice to the residents to vacate the flats within 48 hours, but the Supreme Court gave them 5 months to vacate.

On October 1, the Supreme Court issued orders to the residents of over 90 illegal flats, asking them to vacate by November 11. Following this, the BMC had issued eviction notices to residents under Section 488 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act last week, warning them not to create problems for the civic authorities as they initiate demolition.

Currently,only 10 out of the 96 unauthorised in the Campa Cola society have been vacated till now, while the rest are fighting the police forces to stop them from demolishing their homes. Some still believe that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan would intervene in the matter. However, much to their dismay , the chief minister too has refused to go against the law.

The demolition was to begin today. The civic body is likely to first cut down the power and water supply to the targeted flats and destroy the internal structure internally. The demolition process of the unathorised structures may take some time as civic body's standing committee has rejected the Rs 3 crore demotion tenders.

OneIndia News