Were you impassioned by Anna Hazare's recent movement?
Were you impassioned by Anna Hazare's recent movement? Did you like being part of a movement demanding a change for the better? Did you fast for a day in solidarity? Then I reckon you've been feeling at a loose end, even given the unending distractions of the IPL. So do you want to ask yourself, if you're in Mumbai, why you haven't shown some anti-corruption solidarity with the residents of the Ganesh Krupa society in Golibar?
Your answer could be that slums, well, there's always some problem and ya, it's sad, but they're bad and we want to be a global city and well... your voice will peter out as you shrug. You might think, you don't know much about it so how much can it matter?
Illustration/ Jishu Dev Malakar
Let me help a little with the last bit. Ganesh Krupa Society, like so many bastis and old buildings in the city, was up for redevelopment. Which means, the horizontal spread of the basti will be made vertical, giving residents compensatory flats and allowing private developers to build plusher flats on the freed up land. Located in Khar East, near the airport, Golibar is prime land.
The residents went into a redevelopment agreement with the Slum Redevelopment Authority, and one Madhu Constructions, after the procedural MHADA surveys and property tax payment and so on. The company got permission to start construction. So it was odd, that in 2010, the society got a notice on behalf of an unknown party called Shivalik Builders. Seems Madhu had gone into an agreement with Shivalik, without informing the residents. Because they can't do it without legal consent of 70 per cent of the residents at a GBM, they just went ahead, forged the signatures of many (why stand on formalities, yaar)u00a0-- including one dead woman. FIRs, RTIs and court cases followed.
Shivalik Builders, emerged as strong contenders for a villain's role in the remake of an '70s film. Some of their construction is on disputed land, they have managed to get demolition orders, despite matters being unresolved, and Unitech, is their primary investorsu00a0-- a fact that emerged in the CBI investigations of the 2G scam. It's a fascinating tale, and had there been unusual weapons or psychotropic drugs involved, either RGV or Anurag Kashyap would now be making a gritty, realistic film about it and not contributing profits to the movement.
And there is a movement. For months, the residents have fought along with activist groups through legal means and protests.u00a0 On May 21, Medha Patkar went on an indefinite hunger strike in support. Residents of other slums who are going through the same predicament, have joined in. There's little reportage, but no city-wide outcry and no response from the CM even till the day this column was filed.
Over 60 per cent of the city's population lives in slums and although we are trained to believe this is because of their bad character and inability to work hard, it has a lot to do with the lack of low-cost housing options in the city, builders preferring 3BHK haciendas, pagodas and vastugrahs. So if you're aged around twenty today, consider it unlikely that you'll be able to afford an apartment in this city, with the way things are going. Happy commuting from Nashik.
You may, understandably, feel cynical or just unsure because corruption is too big a monster, but you could get involved in one part of that problemu00a0-- visit the blog of the Khar East Andolan, sign the petition and get others to sign, show up to show support, contribute skills, money or at least your interest, your engagement and your compassion. Act like the city is yours too, not just some builder's.
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Paromita Vohra is an award-winning Mumbai-based filmmaker, writer and curator working with fiction and non-fiction. Reach her at www.parodevi.com.
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.
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