Bombay HC irked by housing minister

Mumbai: The Bombay high court was irked by the state government when a Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) lawyer informed the court that housing minister Prakash Mehta had opposed the demolition of illegal huts near Vidyavihar area. The lawyer further said the Tilak Nagar police had also refused to give police protection to the authorities to conduct the demolition drive and hence the civic body is not able to raze the unauthorised structures.

The high court directed the state’s advocate general and the Tilak Nagar police senior inspector to appear before the court to explain their conduct.

The court was hearing a PIL filed by NGO Janhit Manch that sought directions for the razing of unauthorised huts around Mumbai’s water pipelines. Based on the court’s order, the BMC has undertaken a phase-wise demolition in the area.

On Wednesday, the court has asked the BMC “why it has taken extensions to demolish huts which fall under phase two.” BMC lawyer Geeta Joglekar filed an affidavit, saying that the state’s housing minister Prakash Mehta had opposed the demolition.

He also claimed that they are trying to accommodate affected people under the government’s scheme till then no demolition should take place. The civic body’s lawyer also alleged that despite requesting several times and the police has refused to provide protection to its officials to carry out demolition drive. The court then directed the state government to clear its stand on its orders. The court said, “Clarify whether the state is implementing the order of the court or not.”  The court further directed that no adverse action should be taken against the hydraulic engineer who had filed the PIL claiming that officials were not given adequate police protection.           

A division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice A.K. Menon was hearing PIL filed by Janahit Manch, a city NGO. PIL had drawn the court’s attention to a media report, which stated that slums along the pipelines could be a security threat.