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Relay fast continues at Azad Maidan

Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan continues despite no response from Government. Several slums and activists are united in the cause.
by National Alliance of People’s Movements

The Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao Andolan agitation entered its seventh day yesterday, with 30 representatives from various slums of Mumbai, who had been fasting for the last 24 hours, breaking their fast and the next 30 representatives beginning their fast in their place. People who observed the fast only drank water, but spoke passionately about the need to struggle against injustices happening to them in their bastis.

Ajay Palande, from Jogeshwari Indira Nagar, while breaking his fast, shouted the slogan “Bhooke pyaase ladenge, Andolan chalayenge.” Added Kantabehen from Chandiwali, “We are trapped in the cruel web of SRA-builders-duplicate notices-lack of basic amenities-fake allotments and have been fighting for the last 12 years. Now we won’t go anywhere, they (the Government) have to come to hear us.”

Two days ago, Rashi Azmi from the All India Milli Council, Anita Vyas from Ambujwadi, Sabrunnisa Saha from Adarsh Nagar, Lakhan Mandal from Mandala, Gauri from Malwani 8, Shamim Ansari, and 24 others from different slums and middle class localities were fasting for their land rights and right to dignified housing.

While there as been no response from the Government as yet, people are determined to continue their agitation. Letters of appeal are being drafted by the people and the supporters to take immediate decisions on the demands of the Andolan. Support from various organisations, senior activists and students is coming from all over the country, which has intensified the energy and increased the enthusiasm of Andolankaris here at Azad Maidan.

Surekha Dalvi, Indavi Tulpade, Rambhau Wadu from Adivasi Sangathan and Shoshit Jan Andolan, Byaneshwar Shedge and Gyanoba Bhikule from Mosekhore Bachao Jan Andolan (which is fighting Lavasa), and many others came to show their solidarity with the Andolan.

Read the story of Susheela, who has faced demolition of her home several times and who is part of this Andolan, here. 

(Picture courtesy unitedblackuntouchablesworldwide.blogspot.com)

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‘Don’t snatch our shelter’

A woman whose home has been demolished often, tells a story of constant battle with the authorities and endless devastation.
by Nidhi Qazi

Mankhurd: The year was 2004. Susheela Patel, a resident of Sathe Nagar, Mankhurd, lost her house. “Our slums were called illegal and one day, without any prior notice, they were demolished,” she said.

Ambedkar Ground: The year is 2013. The Ground was the starting point of a two-day road march which ended at Azad Maidan yesterday. The Ground bustled with the energetic sloganeering of more than a 100 protestors including slum dwellers, students and activists.

Susheela is high on energy too, as she continues to battle it out with the authorities who come, demolish homes, and go. The only difference is that this time, she is not alone. Susheela is part of a larger agitation called the ‘Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao’ Andolan (GBGB) under the aegis of the National Alliance of People’s Movement (NAPM).

Dressed in a sari, hair neatly plaited, the 40-something Susheela greets me with a smile, holds out her hand in an excited handshake and tells me her story with all the enthusiasm and grit of a seasoned activist. “In the last one decade, our houses have been demolished more than thrice. They (the demolitions) continue to devastate us. This is despite the repeated requests to give us notice,” she says. A part of the movement since 2004, Susheela has been there, seen that. “We are always under the fear of demolition. They (the authorities) don’t even bother to listen to us. They throw away our belongings, too.”

Susheela’s problem points to a bigger issue which the city is currently engulfed in: the State-builder nexus. Activists openly allege that Mumbai is one of the hubs of corruption perpetrated under the garb of infrastructure development projects. “The big players of this nexus include MHADA (Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority), MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority), Adarsh housing, Hiranandani group, developers in areas like Golibar, Sion-Koliwada. A number of irregularities happen in the name of slum eviction drives and slum rehabilitation projects,” a housing activist says.

The Andolan has started a renewed agitation called ‘Mumbai Ke Gareebon Ki Nayi Jung’ which began on Tuesday, the first day of this year. Susheela is one of the members at the front. “We not only want freedom from the ever-lurking fear of our houses getting demolished any time, we want the Rajeev Awas Yojana to be implemented,” she says. The scheme has already been approved from the Delhi government, but the Maharashtra government is still sitting on it, informs Susheela.

The Andolan has raised these issues along with other peoples’ organisations in Mumbai, and demanded Rajeev Awas Yojana (RAY) as self-development towards right to shelter. However, it is the builders-politicians nexus, with bureaucrats and police force to support, that is preventing RAY from being implemented.

The area near Mankhurd is home to a large number of rag pickers who earn their livelihood from the Shivaji Nagar dumping ground. Because of the everyday fear of slum eviction, people like Susheela, many a days have to miss work (rag picking) and thus their livelihood suffers. “Most of the people here are daily wage earners but are not able to earn a decent living thanks to these authorities,” she alleges. The livelihood problem apart, the children’s education suffers, too. “We have to start from scratch; from collecting material for a new house, to building it. In all this, our children suffer.”

She breaks away for a while to join small clusters of women to help them raise a voice. While everyone assembled there is equally angry and agitated, people like Susheela help them channelise their distress during protests like these. I watch as Susheela rushes to a group of volunteers, helping them with simple logistics such as microphone arrangement, banners and placards.

Moving away after helping others, she then barges into another cluster of people surrounding activist Medha Patkar. They both whisper to each other, and Susheela comes away.

She greets me again with the same enthusiasm and chats awhile before concluding, “We don’t want big buildings. We don’t want anything. But don’t snatch our shelter. Just assure us a simple, decent life which is free of fear.”

(Pictures courtesy Nidhi Qazi)

 

 

 

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CM wants mini Press Council for Maharashtra

Rising attacks and mounting pressure from journalists prompts CM to promise to push for Bill in the next Cabinet meeting.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Rising attacks on journalists in the State have got Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan promising a string of measures to protect journalists. Precipitated by a need to have a stringent law in place to ward off attacks on journalists, especially after the February 2012 attack on The Times of India building in Mumbai by the Shiv Sena, a Committee Against Attacks on Journalists had been set up to push for a law to protect journalists.

In a meeting with the Committee in Nagpur yesterday, where the State Legislature is currently in its Winter Session, Chavan assured the delegation that he would review and further discuss the need to implement a law that protected journalists in the State. “We will also look into the setting up of a body like The Press Council of India which is unique to Maharashtra, and which will look into the welfare of journalists in the State,” Chavan said during the meeting.

Members of the Committee had been sitting on an indefinite fast to have their demands met – the Committee has been increasingly frustrated by the State Government’s inaction in the matter. Chavan said, “No doubt there needs to exist a law that protects journalists from attacks. However, such a law and its implications need to be studied in great detail before it can be effectively implemented.”

In February this year, the CM promised to push for the Bill in the Cabinet, and appointed State Industries Minister Narayan Rane to the panel that would formulate the law. Interestingly, Rane was one of the ministers opposed to such a Bill in the first place.

Maharashtra has had quite a few examples of journalists clashing with politicians, builders and others, especially in the mofussil areas, where journalists are said to be targeted routinely. As per records of the last 10 years, 11 journalists have been murdered and six media organisations have been attacked, with a majority of these attacks perpetrated by political parties. From 2010 till date, there have been 212 attacks on journalists and media houses in Maharashtra.

 (Picture courtesy criticalppp.com)

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AAP Pawar pe chup kyun hain?

While Aam Aadmi Party’s ‘black paper’ on Maha irrigation irregularities tears into Sunil Tatkare, it says nothing on Ajit Pawar.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday was clearly Ajit Pawar’s day. The decks were cleared for his return to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post he resigned from on September this year, owing to his name being mired in alleged irregularities in the irrigation sector, and on the other hand, the ‘black paper’ submitted by the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) vehemently tore into Water Resources Minister (WRD) Sunil Tatkare, but did not name Ajit Pawar.

The AAP presented its black paper to State Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan yesterday, following which, Chavan had a meeting with the party’s activists Anjali Damania and Praful Vora, among others. In the paper, AAP has called the white paper on irrigation brought out by the Tatkare-led WRD a “total farce” and demanded for Tatkare’s resignation, but does not name Ajit Pawar anywhere.

Like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the AAP has also demanded for an SIT-level probe in the matter.

In black and white

In its black paper, AAP has countered almost all of the white paper’s claims, starting with the area under irrigation in the State. While the white paper claims that the area under irrigation increased by 5.17 per cent from 2001 to 2010, the black paper calls this as an attempt to mislead people.

Further, the black paper says that water was illegally diverted from irrigation projects to non-irrigation purposes, and that there were plans to approve 71 new water-intensive thermal power projects in the suicide-prone districts of Vidarbha.

The black paper blames the WRD for rampant corruption and violation, and calls for Tatkare’s resignation, an SIT probe in the irrigation scam and action against politicians, officials and contractors responsible for the mess, apart from demanding an immediate stop on projects that have committed violations. The paper also criticises Chavan, adding that the white paper presented by the WRD to the Government was merely a ‘status paper’ that toed the coalition politics line.

AAP will most likely bring out another black paper on irrigation soon.

(Picture courtesy forbesindia.com)

 

 

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First, the transfer. Now, modifications

The Centre will hand over the Indu Mill land. The State will now seek the necessary modifications for the takeover.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Yesterday, the Centre announced that the Indu Mills land in Prabhadevi would be given for the setting up of a Dr BR Ambedkar memorial. While the announcement was welcomed by all quarters, with the State Government pushing for the issue over meetings in the last few days, the next task for the Maharashtra Government is to oversee the takeover process for the land.

First is a proposal to amend the existing CRZ norms to the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) – a modification to this is needed because prevalent rules do not aid the Transfer of Development (TDR). Also, a special clause will be invoked in the city’s Development Control (DC) rules to allow the TDR to be used in the island city.

An MoEF approval is also necessary for the plot of land approved for the memorial by the State. Furthermore, Union Textile Minister Anand Sharma will have to push for a legislative proposal to enable the use of land for a memorial – the land was originally a private land which was under the National Textile Corporation (NTC).

The State plans, apart from a memorial, a social justice university, a museum housing Ambedkar’s belongings, a meditation centre, a residential space for visiting pilgrims and a library on the site.

(Picture courtesy jaimaharashtranews.com) 

 

 

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Congress will look after urban affairs

Maharasthra State Congress unit sets up an Urban Affairs Department to address issues arising out of urbanisation in the State.

It is known that Mumbai and Pune are not the only urbanised centres in the State of Maharashtra any more. But while urbanisation is slowly spreading even in hitherto mofussil areas, rising slum areas in the State’s cities are fast becoming a matter of concern. The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) proposes to address this situation.

MPCC head Manikrao Thakre has proposed the setting up of an Urban Affairs Department to study the process of urbanisation in the State, with particular reference to Mumbai. With more people migrating to the cities than ever before, primarily in search of work, the problems of housing the rising numbers of migrants, providing sanitation and transport, apart from job opportunities and a secure life in the city, are coming to the fore on a daily basis.

Says Thakre, “Keeping in mind the rising urbanisation and the issues arising out of it, the MPCC has set up the Department which will be headed by former legal counsel BA Desai. While all of India is rapidly undergoing urbanisation, the State Government needs to revisit the work and ideas put forward by the 10-member committee of experts put together by the late Rajiv Gandhi, on the matter of urbanisation.”

He adds, “About 50 per cent of Mumbai’s population lives in slums, in very bad conditions. This condition exists in the smaller cities of the State also. Hence, the Department we have set up will study the patterns of urbanisation in the State’s cities and suggest ways to make life easier for people. These suggestions will be forwarded to the State Government and followed up for faster decisions.”

The experts appointed to the new Department comprises such luminaries as former State Chief Secretary DM Sukhtankar, World Bank Advisor Vidyadhar Pathak and senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, among many others. Smaller sub-committees will be set up all across the State, Thakre says.

(Pictures courtesy indianexpress.com and web.mit.edu)

 

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