Only in Dharavi: Residents of a building to be rehabilitated in a slum

Mumbai, July 20 As Asia’s largest slum readies for makeover, residents of an ‘unauthorised’ building face prospect of moving back into shanties
In A city where shanty-towns proliferate almost as quickly as plans to rehabilitate the millions living in them, this will be a first. Having spent eight years in an eight-storey building in Asia’s largest slum, with no toilets except on the ground floor and no electricity at all, 109 families now face “rehabilitation” in their original slum structures.
The demolition of their building in Dharavi, in Central Mumbai, was first ordered last year by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), which finally found the structure to be entirely unauthorised. So, while the global big daddies of construction vie for a slice of the multi-crore Dharavi Redevelopment Project, the Anna Nagar Lokmanya Cooperative Housing Society in Dharavi faces the prospect of returning to tin-and-tarpaulin homes.
The SRA’s response to the Bombay High Court after residents moved the court states: “The developer Deepak Rao of Acconor Associates carried out illegal construction work and hence the developer should demolish the unauthorised construction and should “rehabilitate” all 109 occupants by constructing their original slum structures.” The developer is to bear the cost of constructing the shanties, it adds.
The residents, seeking accommodation in a transit camp instead, say it’s odd that no official noticed the illegal building through these years. “We do not have even the basic amenity of a toilet on every floor. A single 1,000-litre tank supplies water to around 700 residents. And it started caving in the very year it was built,” says one resident, K Anthony (37), an idli-vendor.
It was Anthony’s Right to Information application that led to the discovery that their building was unauthorised. Anthony had sought details of how many flats had been sold by the developer and how many used to rehouse slum dwellers. To his shock, official records showed their SRA project had never been sanctioned.
When police complaints yielded little, residents filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court in 2007. In reply, the SRA passed the demolition order. It emerges now that the builder started construction in 1999 despite permission being denied.
The July 2007 order, signed by then CEO of the SRA, I S Chahal, states: “The irresponsible behaviour of the developer to construct the illegal building by displacing the slumdwellers and to further argue for granting permission to the illegally constructed building is of punishable nature.”
On his part, having abandoned the incomplete project, the developer Rao filed a writ petition challenging the demolition order. “We have been trying to regularise our building. The SRA, however, did not support us. In 2003, the SRA said they had misplaced our documents. How are we at fault?” Rao asks.
The SRA now awaits the court’s instructions. “We will wait for the High Court to pass an order and only then will be able to shift the occupants to any transit camp,” said Shrikant Singh, Chief Executive Officer of the SRA. Singh was unwilling to comment on why no action was taken against the builder.
Sukanya Shetty
Posted online: Monday , July 21, 2008 at 03:07:58Updated: Monday , July 21, 2008 at 03:07:58
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