RailEnquiry

Slum dwellers living on the land owned by the Mafatlal group in Kalwa staged a rail roko to stop the demolition being carried out there by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) on Wednesday morning. As a result, train services suffered and the TMC suffered a loss of over Rs1 lakh.

In August, the Bombay high court had directed the demolition of the slums thatillegally encroached upon 62 acres of the land owned by the Mafatlal company which was shut down several years ago. TMC officials said there are over 35,000 illegal slums on the plot.

Before the demolition squad could reach the site, the slum dwellers staged a rail roko at the level crossing gate 28 near Kharegaon, from where the squad was expected to pass through.
“Cops called to tell us about the protest and asked us to wait till the situation was controlled. But things kept getting worse with the growing size of the mob. Finally, we had to postpone the demolition,” said Prakash Borse, the TMC official who was in charge of carrying out the demolition.

He added that they had carried out nine demolition drives since 2008. “The HC directed us time and again to demarcate the plot by constructing a compound wall by November 2012. A 2km-long stretch of the wall is now pending,” he said.

The TMC suffered a loss of Rs1 lakh as it had hired over 400 labourers, 10 earthmovers and 100 TMC personnel.

More than 3,000 slum dwellers staged the protest, supported by MLA Jitendra Awhad, who said, “For 50 years, 35,000 slum dwellers have been staying here. How can the civic body just remove them?”

Suburban rail services were disrupted from 7.20am to 8.45am. Services were later affected on a large scale with 55 trains cancelled by 4pm.

The police registered a case against 68people, including Awhad, under various sections of the IPC like section 174 of the Indian Railway Act and section 37(1)(3) of the Bombay Police Act.