Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai
Mumbai, Jul 8: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday observed that citizens were equally responsible for Mumbai's recurring waterlogging, saying rampant encroachments and the clogging of drainage systems had contributed significantly to the city's monsoon flooding.
Hearing a petition related to the widening of the Sion-Trombay Road, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad remarked that the city's flooding was "our own creation" and urged people not to blame the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) alone.
The court observed that while the civic body had provided drainage lines, footpaths and other public infrastructure, citizens had encroached on them, dumped waste into gutters and converted footpaths into parking spaces and hawking zones.
"Our habit is to rob our own motherland. We grab lands, block the gutters and then put up our shops illegally. You can't walk. What will the corporation do?" the bench observed, noting that even the footpaths outside the High Court building in Mumbai's Fort area had been encroached upon by photocopy shops, tea stalls and other vendors.
The judges said Mumbai was "destined to witness rainwater on the roads" because of widespread encroachments on public land and blocked drainage systems.
The bench also criticised the tendency of illegal occupants to seek legal protection only when demolition drives are initiated.
"When the corporation comes for demolition, you want seven days' notice. Suddenly the law books are opened. But when you grab the land, nobody reads the law," the court remarked.
The observations came during the hearing of a plea concerning the widening of the Sion-Trombay Road near Mandala village in Mankhurd.
Appearing for the BMC, senior advocate Milind Sathe informed the court that the civic body had already removed encroachments and widened the road to 30 feet after felling around 192 trees. However, he said expanding the road further to 50 feet would require land belonging to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), which oversees the nearby Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).
Sathe told the court that the BMC was ready to complete the project if the DAE made the encroachment-free land available.
The High Court issued a notice to the Department of Atomic Energy seeking its response on the matter and adjourned the hearing for a later date.