Residents of Malabar Hill’s Ridge Road, who have been campaigning against the setting up of a 4G mobile tower in neighbouring building's terraces are a miffed lot, after BMC officials took down all the banners and posters lining the inside of their compound walls on Monday
Residents of Malabar Hill’s Ridge Road, who have been campaigning against the setting up of a 4G mobile tower in neighbouring building's terraces are a miffed lot, after BMC officials took down all the banners and posters lining the inside of their compound walls on Monday (yesterday). These posters spoke about the ill effects of mobile tower radiation.
On January 26, mid-day had reported that residents of three buildings, El-Cid, Hill View and Bay View had come together to protest against the proposed 4G mobile towers, to be set up atop Hill View building.
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The sudden move by the BMC to pull down their banners has left the residents fuming.
“There is no rule against putting up banners inside our properties. The BMC officials gave us no reason as to why they pulled our banners down, this is a violation of our rights as citizens,” said Zinnia Lawyer, El-Cid building resident.
According to residents, the BMC officials were accompanied by people from the company that has proposed to set up the 4G tower.
“The BMC is working hand-in-glove with big corporates at the risk of people's health. It takes no time for these companies to put up towers, but it is a problem if we protest? We are now planning to approach the police over this, to know if we required any permission to put up the banners,” added Lawyer.
Bakhtawar Chenoy, chairperson of El-Cid building said, “We were not aware of this till our building watchman came to me saying that the posters were being removed. They also damaged the banners while removing them. We tried contacting the BMC ward office, but got no response.”
Given the large number of mobile towers in the neighbourhood, residents had a radiation level test done in each of their homes, which showed high results, prompting members of the housing society to start the campaign.
When mid-day tried contacting the BMC’s D ward office, under whose jurisdiction Malabar Hill falls, there was no response from the ward office, or Devidas Kshirsagar, the D ward officer, despite several phone calls and messages.
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