After spending Rs 5 cr to save homes, Campa Cola residents have to move out

The final ray of hope for residents of the disputed flats in the Campa Cola society in Worli diminished yesterday when the Supreme Court rejected their plea to stay evacuation of their flats After the apex court dismissed the plea in the morning yesterday inhabitants started packing their bagsAlso read BMC to file contempt of court case against Campa Cola residentsSome residents are moving in with relatives and friends while others plan to stay on in the society premises Residents were seen gathering their belongings after their last hope of retaining their flats was dashed yesterday PicsDatta KumbharResidents had gone last week to the vacation bench of the SC to ask for an extension period to allow them to stay in their homes and also to help regularise them To their dismay the application was turned downAlso read Campa Cola demolition Residents want time till end of monsoonThey were seen moving their packed luggage to their relativesrsquo flats Some preferred hiring a godown to temporarily store their belongings until a solution is worked out Homeowners couldnrsquot find packers at such short notice and had to do the shifting themselves Devyani Jaykar one of the affected residents said ldquoIrsquom the only one doing all the packing as my family is out of townAlso read BMC sends final evacuation notice to Campa Cola residentsI donrsquot even have packers coming in to help they claim they arenrsquot available at such short noticerdquo Vinaychand Hirawat a resident from Midtown apartments stated ldquoThis has been a very torturous year for us and our problems are neverending But we canrsquot let our houses be demolishedI will fight for my house till I dierdquo Sandeep Gupta from BY apartments told midday he was moving in to a friendrsquos flat as ldquothe government hadnrsquot offered any helprdquo Rajesh Manot another resident of Midtown says he will build a tent in the society premises and stay there along with his belongings as a mark of silent protestThe hammer will fall on a total of 96 flats that have been deemed illegal by the BMC The civic body had given them till June 2 to hand over the keys to their homes in order to facilitate peaceful evacuation But no one has done so till now Civic authorities had even threatened to file a contempt of court case due to thisSpent a bombIt has been more than a year since the controversy over the flats came into the limelight The committee formed to save the homes spent over Rs 5 crore on the legal and publicity campaign only to leave them homelessA homeowner on condition of anonymity confessed ldquoWe have spent so much over R5 crore Now we are left with nothing The builders havenrsquot been brought to book and we are the one sufferingrdquo The costs include engaging lawyers and also hiring a public relations firm which ensured the issue was communicated to the media wellAfter various hearings and extensions of demolition orders and a final stay on it in November 2013 the highest judiciary body in the country has deemed that residents need to vacate their flats in order that BMC may proceed to demolish the unauthorised flats