BJP alleges land grab on Mithi bank

MUMBAI: The BJP sees a massive land-grabbing scam in the slum rehabilitation programme along the 21-km stretch of the Mithi river bank. Builders and developers are engaged in large-scale Mithi reclamation activity to “create” land, alleged former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya on Monday.

Around five lakh square feet of land has virtually been created by builders by refilling the river and the land is being claimed on the pretext of carrying out slum rehabilitation schemes, he said.

Last year, it was Mr Somaiya who had filed a public interest litigation, following which the Bombay High Court ordered a thorough clean-up of the 21-km flow of the Mithi. The PIL was a response to large-scale pollution, illegal shanties that had come up along the bank, refilling, and alterations to its natural flow, which were seen as major factors precipitating the 26/7 deluge.

In the first phase of the Mithi clean-up drive, the BMC and the MMRDA got their act together by widening the river, clearing up the bank of illegal shanties, and preventing discharge of chemical waste of local industrial units from flowing into the river.

Mr Somaiya’s charge, however, is the shanties are back, widened portion of the river is being gobbled up by debris, soil, and garbage, and chemical wastes are making a reappearance. “The river is again degenerating into a dirty canal,” Mr Somaiya contended.

The tender for the second phase of the maintenance work, according to him, was invited in November 2006, but work order has not been issued so far. “The delay could result in the entire work getting indefinitely deferred since works of such nature are not generally implemented in summer,” he reasoned.

The BJP leader harped on particular stretches of the river where “rampant land-grabbing” on the pretext of slum rehabilitation has taken place. “Land thus created is being cited by builders as sites for carrying out slum rehabilitation schemes and fake slum-dwellers’ lists are being furnished,” he said, to corroborate his charge.

The BJP has demanded a probe by the anti-corruption bureau into all the slum rehabilitation programmes along the Mithi, approved in the past two years.