After 24 yrs, shanties to make way for road

Court clears the way for 60-ft road in Sion, raps 'squatters' for claiming to be poor slum dwellers

- Prateem Rohanekar

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday cleared the way for a 60-feet development plan (DP) road in Everard Nagar in Sion, which had been held up for around 24 years due to an illegal nexus between slum-lords, local corporator and municipal officers.

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 (BMC) to remove the remaining shanties that had encroached upon the land acquired for the DP road and expeditiously complete the road work.

The bench was hearing a contempt petition filed by Everard Society against Ajit Ambi, assistant municipal commissioner of the ward, and others. The plea arose from an order passed in 2015 in a batch of petitions filed by the housing society and five of the 52 slum dwellers, who had encroached upon the area earmarked for the road, challenging their eviction on the grounds that the BMC had declared them eligible to be rehabilitated.