16 June,2017 09:50 AM IST | Mumbai | Gaurav Sarkar
BMC officials came to carry out partial demolition of illegal structure in Marol, following shirtless protest by senior citizen outside ward office, but after one day, go missing again
The partial demolition being carried out on Wednesday
It took a 71-year-old to go shirtless to shake the BMC out of their complacency and carry out demolition - still partial - of an illegal ground+1 structure in Marol that is blocking a road.
On Tuesday, mid-day had reported that Faber Leo Gonsalves had resorted to the extreme step of protesting outside the K-East ward office shirtless after six letters to the ward authorities and even the assurance of the deputy civic commissioner that the matter would be "expedited", led to three months of inaction.
Also read - Mumbai: 71-year-old goes shirtless outside BMC ward office in protest
On Monday, he was finally assured that the John Demalo Gracious House near Jain Mandir would be demolished on Wednesday.
Unfulfilled promises
Come Wednesday, four officials from BMC, accompanied by three female police officers, did show up at around 4.30 pm, but only carried out a partial demolition.
Marol resident Faber Leo Gonsalves (71) protests outside the ward office after an unfruitful meeting with the assistant civic commissioner on Monday
"They have demolished the gallery section of the structure, but as it got late, promised me that the remaining would be demolished today (Thursday)," said Cynthia Leo Gonsalves, Faber's daughter. However, no demolition work took place on Thursday.
BMC says
When mid-day reached out to an official from the building and factory department of K-East, he confirmed that demolition work had taken place on Wednesday, but did not reveal information about when the rest of the structure will now be demolished.
