Airport slum dwellers sweat it out

It was a typical Sunday in most Mumbai households. People watched movies, ate out and spent time with their families and friends. In stark contrast to this, thousands of men, women and children stood in the scorching sun for four hours. These people — slum dwellers who have lived near Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport for the past few decades — were protesting against the Mumbai International Airport Limited’s (MIAL) expansion plans as they face the prospect of being relocated to Dahisar or Mankhurd.
The Sangharsha Samiti, had therefore, called for a ‘One-Day Agitation for Rehabilitation’, where nearly 10,000 slum dwellers, led by BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde and Parag Alwani, corporator and group leader in the BMC were to camp at a plot opposite Hansa Bhugra Marg, at Kalina University Campus. But the police bandobast prevented them to do so.
“This 30-acre land belongs to the university. Some part of it was given to the Hyatt while a part of it is being used to make a tennis court and stadium. Under the law slum dwellers should always be rehabilitated in the vicinity. We are fighting so that these people, from 80,000 hutments, can be rehabilitated here,” said Alwani, chairman of the Sangharsha Samiti.
Alwani pointed out that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has several plots in the vicinity — like the one between the Reliance Energy office and Milan Subway along the Western Express Highway, or another between the Le Meridian hotel and the Andheri-Kurla road.
28/05/07 Megha Chaturvedi/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports May 2007, New May 2007