In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court said that squatters have no right to encroach upon public land. The land mafia in Mumbai has long been exploited the politics underlying this issue to make easy money. And the relentless influx of immigrants from other states helped them to encroach upon more public land and later use the humanity card to ensure they get rehabilitated at state’s expense.
5 years ago, the west side of Mithi River at Bandra station was full of mangroves. Today countless shanties have come up their and it has been eating into the mangroves gradually.
The political parties have so long approached this issue with a pro-slum attitude. Since this comprise a huge vote-bank, they couldn’t, or wouldn’t want to, do anything. And whenever the Municipal Corporation embark upon a demolition drive, the local MLA would oppose and bring the whole proceedings to a halt. A case in point is the eviction of slum dwellers from Airport Authority Land at Kurla. BMC started the demolition but after MLA’s intervention, had to drop it.
The arguments invoked in such cases are, poverty, desperation etc. But the court rejected this arguments upright and said, “Poverty or desperation doesn’t mean they (encroachers) can do anything illegal”. If one poor man robs a bank and claim his desperation made him do it, does it stand in any court? The counsel should have known better.
The next argument was “there is no other places them to go in the scorching sun. The court retorted by “In India, we have three climates. Heat, Rain and winter. If we accept your argument, then there will never be an appropriate time to evict them”
Brushing aside other arguments based on compassion and these people are here since 1070 and came here to find jobs because they have no means of finding livelihood back home, the court said, “No one forced you to come here. Stay wherever you can. If public land encroachments are allowed, there will be anarchy. Tomorrow these people will start living here at Supreme Court claiming a right. If you are occupying public land, what to talk about fundamental right, you have no right to stay there for a minute longer”
An astounding victory for Municipal corporations, and a slap on the face of encroachers and activists who lobby for rehabilitation, I would say. Hope this will further strengthen the Municipal corporations to establish sanity and prevent further encroachment. In Mumbai, there are few open spaces left. This verdict may preserve them from the strangle hold of encroachers who keep coming in hordes into the city.
4 comments:
Researches has shown everywhere that Mangrooves are an integral part of the ecosystem and is vital in flood prevention. This has been vidicated by the recent flooding in New Orleans from Katrina and could also have been the reason for the last years flooding in Mumbai. Its sad that these responsilbe authorities dont take the encroachment of natures barriers seriously.
@Kuttan
I am not a hardcore environmentalist, and would always thinks in practical line, but this encroachment is something which should be stopped.
Glad you can realte with it.
The SC made the right decision but it fails to see the fact that the govt will do little or nothing to rehabilitate these encroachers.
Dhruv,
Thats' the whole point. Why should the government take the extra burden of rehabilitating this illegal aliens (in American parlance) when it can't offer releif to it's farmer's suicide-a-minute rampage in it's interiors? They come in hordes from other states and stay at every nook and cranny and demands rehabilitation? As SC put it, what to talk about rights, you have no rights stay there a minute longer. Period.
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