Fires near their huts keep Jai Bhim Nagar residents on edge

Labelling them as scare tactics, the resident footpath-dwellers at Jai Bhim Nagar, Powai, have claimed there has been a sequence of little fires in and around their homes for the past four nights.

MUMBAI: Labelling them as scare tactics, the resident footpath-dwellers at Jai Bhim Nagar, Powai, have claimed there has been a sequence of little fires in and around their homes for the past four nights. Although no lives have been lost and few belongings have been affected, the close calls have put the families on edge.

Labelling them as scare tactics, the resident footpath-dwellers at Jai Bhim Nagar, Powai, have claimed there has been a sequence of little fires in and around their homes for the past four nights (Hindustan Times)

“For the past few nights, we’ve been woken up by the need to put out fires in or near our huts on the 90-feet road, which is on the inner side of the basti, that has no lights,” said Shiv Sagar, one of the residents. “Someone or the other is always awake, so they alert the others to put out the fire using the water we have stored. Thankfully, the three huts that had caught fire were unoccupied. But on Friday morning, around 4am, the fire went a little out of hand and we could not control it, and so the fire brigade had to be called.”

A fire brigade officer from the Vikhroli fire station confirmed the fire incident and the fire brigade’s present, but said it was a minor fire. “There are a lot of combustible dry shrubs over there, which are liable to see fires because of the heat and any cigarette buts thrown.”

Huma Namal, an IIT-Bombay student with the Collective Mumbai that has been working with the basti, said, “For three to four days now, the fires have been recurring. A few of the unoccupied huts that have caught fire were cleared off the very next day.”

She elaborated that these fires seemed to be the next in a sequence of incidents to scare the residents away. “A few weeks back, beer bottles were thrown at the entrance of the huts, with glass splattering all around. People come randomly threatening the residents to leave. And their drinking water supply is intermittent.”

A few of the wary residents visited the Powai police station on Friday, hoping to file a complaint as they suspected the fires were being purposely orchestrated by the area’s builder. “But the police refused to file a complaint. Instead, they said they would appoint an officer to stand guard there and send water for us, almost saying they would supply us with water to extinguish the fire but wouldn’t help prevent it. We returned unsatisfied, but two tankers were sent on Friday.”

Police inspector at the Powai station, Jitendra Sonwane, who is one of the police officers named as accused in the FIR, pointed the fingers back at the residents. “The basti residents are themselves setting the fires, as can be seen in CCTV footage of a garbage can being lit that Friday morning, so that they can bolster their case. We will take action on them next time.”

The Jai Bhim Nagar residents objected to this, countering that the police had not informed them of this or taken action against the people of the basti either, if they had the evidence.

“Why would lighting fires to our own homes be advantageous for us? It is reducing the number of huts, which we do not want,” said Sagar. Namal countered that the latest FIR had bolstered the residents to wait it out on the footpaths for longer for justice.

The Jai Bhim Nagar basti, located behind Powai Plaza, of 650-odd families was demolished by the BMC in June 2024 amid clashes with the police, despite a government order outlawing demolitions during the monsoon months.

In the months after, a petition in the Bombay high court presented their case, as they claimed they had been residents at the site for over 30 years and were given the accommodation by a builder for workers on the construction site.

In the latest update, on the directions of the court, an FIR was filed on February 10 against 10 civic officials and police personnel for carrying out the demolition without the required clearances.

However, most residents have left the footpath for rented accommodation in other slums in the locality, with only 30 families remaining.