Mumbai: Worli locals rush to prove they are legal

Residents of Worli Koliwada who had been vigilant about the illegal constructions in their area are now themselves facing the threat of losing their homes The BMC in the wake of the demolition of the unauthorised structures in one corner of Worli Seaface has sent notices to many legal residents as well some of whom have been living there since 1995They are now rushing to the civic ward office to prove that their houses were built legally midday had on July 23 reported about the locals raising an alarm aboutmushrooming illegal huts along the boundary of the Golphadevi SRAhousing societyLocals with documents proving their legal residency outside the BMC office in Prabhadevi on FridayOn Thursday evening in the wake of demolition of the unauthorised structures near the mouth of Bandra Worli Sea Link the G South ward issued notices to legalauthorised huts as well Many locals say they have been residing here since 1995 and that they are now rushing to prove that they are living here legally The residents submitted their documents to the G South ward office on Friday morning They held a meeting in the afternoon stating that they have proof that they are legal The locals asked why they were even issued demolition noticesHave proofThe residents said they had replied to the notices and attached documents like Annexure 2 containing a list of names of legal residents voting cards and electricity bill issued before 2000They said ldquoIn our responses to the notice we stated that there has been illegal and unauthorised construction of hutsstructures by some antisocial elements near the sea shore However our hutsstructures do not fall under the same Our hutsstructures are shown as protected in Annexure 2 issued by the deputy collector encroachmentremovalrdquo They have made a request to withdraw the noticesSharad Koli chief promoter of the Golphadevi SRA society said ldquoWe have submitted documents which proves the legality at the BMCrsquos G South office Approximately 20 people have been served notices and we hear that more will get one soon Illegal residents are being mixed up with those living here legally Why should the genuine residents sufferrdquoLiving here since 1995He added ldquoWe have also been told that any structure should not extend beyond the wall of a garden in the area The wall should be considered as a border But the garden wall was built in 20052006 while many of these homes have been standing since 1995 So how can that wall become a defining border We wanted action against the illegal structures not us We have been made to run around trying to prove that we are legal residentsrdquoBMCrsquos R Mohite said some locals had come to meet him ldquobut our prime concern is safety We have seen strong monsoon waves lashing at huts The boundary wall has been made for their safety and we want all structures to be within that We are going to look at the answers and documents submitted by locals responding to thenotices This is to reaffirm that safety is priority in this season and we want to guard against loss of property but most importantly any threat to liferdquo20No of legal residents who have got demolition notice so far