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Citizens groups come together to oppose Dharavi residents reallocation
Citizen groups in Mumbai unite as 'Mumbai Bachao Samiti' to oppose Dharavi Redevelopment Project, advocating for residents to be relocated within Dharavi.
Mumbai: Various citizen groups opposed to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project came together on Sunday to form a collective titled ‘Mumbai Bachao Samiti’ or ‘Save Mumbai Committee.’
“We have been fighting separately all this while, but our goal is singular: to get the Dharavi residents to be relocated within Dharavi,” said Sagar Devre, part of the committee fighting against the Mulund PAP project to house Dharavi residents. “So, we have decided to get together and fight collectively.”
Groups that are part of the collective are the Dharavi Bachao Samiti - Dharavi residents who are opposing relocation outside Dharavi; residents of Mulund, neighbouring Bhandup, and Vikhroli opposing the PAP project to shift Dharavi residents to Mulund; and residents of Kurla, who are opposing the Dharavi resident’s relocation at the green space of Kurla dairy.
From all the groups combined, two volunteers will become the face of the Save Mumbai Committee. “We plan to meet chief minister Eknath Shinde during the ongoing session and hand him a letter about our demands,” said Devre.
The final masterplan of the Dharavi project is not decided yet, says Devre, and the state doesn’t even know how many people are there, how many are eligible, or ineligible. “First, they should figure the details out. The land where they’re intending to shift those from Dharavi should be used for public good,” said Devre.
According to a study by the Dharavi Bachao Samiti, Dharavi, which is 600 acres huge, can accommodate all residents within 300 acres. “So why are the Adani and the state government going around collecting more and more land for this project, when the residents themselves want to be shifted in the same place and so do residents of other neighbourhoods? This is all to take advantage of high FSIs and TDR,” said Devre.
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