The body is resuming its demolition drive to raze illegal structures in MHADA colonies; residents claim that authorities are targeting only those colonies which refused redevelopment while letting others be
The body is resuming its demolition drive to raze illegal structures in MHADA colonies; residents claim that authorities are targeting only those colonies which refused redevelopment while letting others be
The K-West ward is all set to resume its massive demolition drive today to raze to ground portions of houses built illegally by tenants dwelling in colonies developed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) at Sardar Vallabhai Patel (SVP) Nagar in Andheri West. The drive was begun in December last year, and is now being renewed after expiry of the relief period granted by the court to tenants. 
In the eye of the Bulldozer: One of the houses in Andheri West,
which isu00a0on the BMC's list of illegal structures
Speaking to MiD DAY, A E Shinde, assistant engineer of BMC's Building and Factory department for the ward, said, "As the duration of relief granted by the honourable court to the tenants before demolition has ended on April 30, we have already started taking action. The drive is being undertaken to speed up the process, as we have to tear down around 2,200 to 2,300 illegal structures before the monsoon begins."
Demolition began on a small scale on Saturday, the first society to go under the bulldozer being Society No 18 in SVP Nagar. There are 98 MHADA societies here, each with 31 members. In December, the tenants had filed individual affidavits requesting for relief. They had promised the court that theyu00a0 themselves would demolish the structures before April 30. Some kept the promise, but a majority displayed little or no enthusiasm to follow court directions. BMC officials said that they would also rope in police and hire more workers to execute the demolition.
Resident reactions
Yogesh Darji (32), a resident of Disha Cooperative Housing Society No 33 said, "We don't want to invite any legal trouble. As we had promised the court, we completed the demolition by April 24." But the tenants have now started demolishing the illegal sections themselves. Some, however, allege that BMC officers are rather selective in their work.
"It seems that the BMC is taking action against particularly those societies that have signed agreements with small builders. The illegal structures in societies that have consented to redevelopment with prominent builders have not yet been touched by the BMC. Some of these big builders have also assured their societies that the BMC will demolish their illegal structures only after demolition of other colonies. How can a builder be so confident about BMC's plans? How can they know in such detail which society will be demolished the next day? I smell a rat," alleged an SVP Nagar resident.
At present, as many as 96 of the existing 98 societies have given their consent for redevelopment. The developers have also submitted the proposals to MHADA, which, incidentally, has not cleared a single proposal till date.
Drive history
In December last year, the BMC mounted its campaign to demolish illegal alterations made to MHADA structures in its colonies at Adarsh Nagar, Laxmi Industrial Estate and SVP Nagar. This drive was purportedly the biggest drive undertaken by BMC, for which two private contractors were appointed at a cost of Rs 2.68 crore.
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Till date, the BMC has razed about 1600 such illegal structures in MHADA colonies, of which 900 structures were demolished in Adarsh Nagar in Jogeshwari (West), 450 in SVP Nagar, and 150 in Laxmi Industries at Andheri.
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