India’s largest urban demolition—855 illegal buildings have to be pulled down, one lakh people will be homeless—picked up pace today in the north-eastern edge suburb of Ulhasnagar.
‘Krishna Complex’,a three-storey commercial building was vacated of its occupants as hundreds of policemen stood by and was brought down by the Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation by noon on Thursday.
The razing of the buildings was ordered in April in the most sweeping crackdown on zoning violations and illegal construction ever seen and is likely to dramatically pick up pace after the Bombay High Court came down heavily on the corporation and Municipal Commissioner on Wednesday for ‘‘not doing well enough’’.
Ulhasnagar is small: 13.5 sq km but packed with 5.5 lakh people, a teeming, unplanned hive of small businesses, mostly run by Sindhis who came over from Pakistan in 1947.
There were military barracks here once, taken over by the Centre after partition to rehabilitate displaced Sindhis and called ‘Kalyan Camp’.
The illegal construction boom snowballed after Suresh alias Pappu Kalani (now an MLA) became president of the municipal council in 1986; allegations of protection fees from builders to construct without plans abound.
‘‘Illegal buildings mushroomed during that period, since civic officers, builders and politicians were hand in glove and buyers did not feel insecure,’’ said Ulhasnagar Congress corporator Mohan Bhagnani.
Today, more than 80 per cent of Ulhasnagar has illegal structures standing on reserved and private land. No one ever thought the demolition would actually be carried out, despite the high court order.
Kalani even appeared on local TV channel Jagran last week saying ‘‘no one can touch a brick’’. Now stunned residents can only await their turn, as the Kalanis—his wife Jyoti is the mayor of Ulhasnagar—backtrack.
‘‘No one expected that the court will take such a tough stand and stress on the law so much,’’ said Jyoti. ‘‘We cannot prevent the demolition, but we hope the state government does something about the relief and rehabilitation of the displaced people.’’
So on Thursday afternoon, there was a frenzy at five-storeyed Rahul Palace, lined up for a Friday demolition.
‘‘We were completely unaware that our building is up next,’’ said a worried Raju Vaswani, who has a second-floor flat. ‘‘All 125 people living here will be on the street tomorrow afternoon.’’
Residents said they were relaxed about the demolition because MLA Kalani promised them no buildings would actually come down.
Rahul Palace was constructed by the builder brothers Late Sudamamu and Anand Lulla in 1994, immediately after the plan was put forward in the corporation.
‘‘They did not wait for any official permission for the same, since all of them had civic and political backing,’’ claimed a resident who admitted he knew the structure was illegal.
Buyers bought the houses at Rs 500 to Rs 600 per sq feet, and without any legal papers, like most people in Ulhasnagar.
‘‘Now we are facing the music,’’ said Vaswani, whose only hope is that the high court reconsiders its judgement. ‘‘We all are ready to pay some fine for the same, but please do not take our homes away.’’
In a jam but will prove myself: Commissioner
Municipal Commissioner Ramnath Sonavane says he is in a ‘‘sandwiched’’ position. After the High Court criticised him on Wednesday, a disturbed Sonavane said: ‘‘I will not take two things on me—charges of corruption and inefficiency. So now I will go ahead and prove myself.’’
Civic sources claim that a NCP minister has been calling the commissioner, urging him to ‘fall ill’ so demolitions can be stalled. Sonavane refused comment. He only said: ‘‘I am sandwiched between the court and others. But I have a list of buildings ready as guided by the Bombay High Court, and I am going to demolish them one after the other.”
sayliudas@expressindia.com