Action against BMC if it doesn't respond: Bombay HC

Mumbai: Even as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) considers relocating the Mankhurd transit camp without providing alternate accommodation to existing occupants, the Bombay high court has warned the chiefs of BMC and MMRDA of action for not responding to court queries regarding the transit camp which has been sans amenities since 2009.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a businessman regarding the plight of the people staying at the Mankhurd transit camp who were shifted from Azad Maidan in 2000 through a NGO’s rehabilitation plan.

The petition stated that while the project had promised proper water, electricity and other amenities, residents had been living there without bare necessities and now, the BMC was proposing to rehabilitate themelsewhere.Initially, the court pointed out that the BMC and MMRDA were the concerned authorities. However, when the petitioner pointed out that neither had responded to the plight of the occupants since 2009, Justice Patil said, “Both the BMC and the MMRDA are trying to drag the matter by assigning a new advocate in each of the hearings. We want the counsels for both authorities to convey our message to their respective chiefs that if they do not respond as to what action they plan to take for transit camp occupants, we will be forced to initiate action against them.”