It has been almost six months that more than 3,000 families in Deonar are struggling to make ends meet.
When in January 2016, a major fire broke out at the Deonar dumpsite that raged on for many days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted an inquiry and declared that the fire was caused intentionally. FIRs were also registered in the case. The civic body also held the unregulated entry of ragpickers to be the reason behind the “sabotage”.
Accordingly, the civic body said that rag pickers would be allowed to enter the dumping ground only after they were registered and carried identity (ID) cards. There has been, however, a delay in issuing the identity cards, thus resulting in ragpickers of over 3,000 families being left without a source of income.
Deonar houses over 5,000 families. While more than 3,000 of them earn their living directly through ragpicking, others are mostly involved in scrap business. Therefore, almost all the residents in Deonar depend on the dumping ground for their bread and have been left helpless after the BMC restricted their movement within the dumpsite and made ID cards compulsory.
While officials from the BMC said that they have already completed the procedure of making the ID cards, not a single ID has been given out to the ragpickers yet. Currently, almost all the residents in Deonar await the matter to be resolved and their lives to get back on track.
In order to initiate the process, the BMC had on May 4, 2016 met with representatives of three prime NGOs that work with ragpickers and finalised plans to organise a week-long camp to register the ragpickers. The ID cards were supposed to be issued after the camp.
Commenting on the matter, Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner of M (east) ward said, “The ragpickers will be given RF ID cards so we can trace their movements within the dumping ground. As no one will be allowed in without the ID cards, if a fire breaks out in any particular area of the dumpsite, ragpickers who have access to that area can be questioned.” The BMC has collected the personal details of the ragpickers and conducted a biometric verification through the NGOs. Following this, police verification had also taken place. But at the end of the camp, no ID cards were issued.
Speaking about their concerns, Bahadur Nurislam Shaikh, a resident of Deonar, said, “For the past three months we have been suffering because of the police’s investigation and because we can no longer earn through ragpicking. The business has been going on here for so many years and the BMC suddenly decided that the ragpickers are responsible for the fire and so the government acted against us.”
Mr Shaikh further added, “Fire breaking out in dumping grounds is almost an everyday affair and our families have always suffered because of it and six months ago nobody cared about it.” Speaking about a possible mafia connection, he said, “A few of my friends and I tried to tell the BMC officials and the police about the mafia’s hold on the Deonar dumping ground but everyone told us to stay mum about it. But now the authorities are acting responsible by arresting the two kingpins who had been responsible for illegal activities at the dumpsite for years.”
Also, commenting on the delay in being given the ID cards, Mr Shaikh said, “All the residents here, with the help of a local corporator, protested twice in front of the BMC office, demanding our ID cards but to no avail.”
Other sources in Deonar blamed the BMC for not taking sufficient precautionary measure after the first major fire at the dumpsite.
Residents also claimed that the BMC could not even construct a proper fence around the dumping ground within the last three months despite so many fire incidents being reported and the blame fell on children and ragpickers who entered the dumping area through a broken wall.
Commenting on this, local corporator Rahij Shaikh said, “After their investigation of the January fire, the police officials had said the problem is that some of the accused would send ragpickers, mostly minors, into the dumping ground using the broken fence to collect e-waste. So ideally, the BMC should have built a proper fence within the last three months.” Mr Shaikh also said, “Even though the BMC workers have started to built a fence in certain areas a few days ago, the quality of the fence is so poor that anyone can break it and enter the dumping ground. I am going to complain about this to the BMC.”
On this, Mr Dighavkar said, “We have attempted several times to build a wall but the residents always break it. This time we have requested police protection for the workers but we have not received any till date.”
Speaking on the same issue, senior police inspector of Shivaji Nagar Balasaheb Jadhav said, “Twenty five police officials have been assigned in Deonar dumping ground every day from every police station in zone 6. The officials are sufficient to keep vigilance at the site.”
He further said, “We are also detaining ragpickers whom we found around the dumping ground area and taking strict action against all the accused. What else does the BMC want from us ”
As far as police investigation is concerned in the matter, the main kingpin Bhondu is yet to be caught. There are two police teams currently looking for him and once caught, he would be booked under MCOCA, said sources from the police.
The Shivaji Nagar police station, which had two offences registered with them, arrested 15 people in April in connection with the case. The accused were scrap dealers and used to live in slums behind the dumping ground. According to the police, these ragpickers would allegedly set fire to the garbage dumped there to melt the plastic, burn other materials and procure metal from it. “The accused would send ragpickers, mostly minors, into the dumping ground with instructions to scour for objects like watches, keyboards, remotes and anything else that classifies as e-waste,” said a police official.
“The ragpickers would burn the plastic coating of these objects so that they melt and the inner wires could then be collected,” said Sangramsingh Nishandar, DCP, eastern zone.
He added that these wires would fetch good money for the scrap dealers and the ragpickers would do this regularly. “On the day of the fire, March 20, the children were sent inside by the scrap dealers (and) set fire at a location which had high intensity of methane or some other combustible substance that led to the fire spreading across the dump site,” he said.
Among the accused, two are the alleged kingpins of the Deonar dumping ground blaze case, Ateeq Khan and Rafique Khan from Shivaji Nagar, were arrested late on Friday. Their police custody has been extended as they were allegedly not co-operating with the police officials.
Commenting on this, investigation officer B. Bhujbal said, “They are the kingpins of the Deonar dumping ground. More than 30 witnesses have stated that these two accused and Bhondu are responsible for the dumping ground blaze.”
Currently bail applications of Ateeq and Rafique are pending before the sessions court while it has already rejected bail plea of other 13 accused in this case.
