Robbed of 300-sqft flat, Vasai evictee wants nothing from 'heartless' govt

Munira Shaikh, 80, is living on the site where her home was razed in Agarwal Nagar, Vasai East

- Megha Sood

MUMBAI: Twelve days after being evicted from her one-room-kitchen flat in Roshni Apartments — one of the 41 unauthorised buildings demolished in Agarwal Nagar in Vasai East — this 80-year-old still has no roof over her head. She has been camping on the vacant plot — on an old bed — since she has nowhere to go.

Munira Shaikh's building was one of the first to be constructed in Agarwal Nagar 25 years ago, when she had bought her 300-square foot home for a total consideration of ₹4 lakh — her life savings.

People who watch her live on her bed, which sits unevenly on the now vacant plot, believe the government should accommodate her elsewhere on humanitarian grounds, but Shaikh doesn't think so. "I have lived here and will die here," she said, seated on her bed, which is covered with a mosquito net and has just enough space for a water bottle and a few clothes.

"The government does not care whether we live or die. They are a bunch of heartless people. I do not have ₹30,000 to give as a deposit and ₹5,000 as monthly rent, to shift to a rented apartment in nearby buildings, where the others rendered homeless by the demolition drive have gone," said Shaikh, fighting back tears.