PIL seeks rehabilitation of over 21K slum dwellers from SGNP

A division bench of acting chief justice S V Gangapurwala and justice S V Marne has issued notices to the Centre and the state government, the conservator and director of forests and the deputy conservator of forests, SGNP, BMC, SRA, and the collector

Slum dwellers living in Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) have urged the Bombay high court to direct authorities to comply with the court orders concerning rehabilitation of more than 21,000 residents.

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A public interest litigation (PIL) petition on behalf of 46 slum settlements was filed by Samyak Janhit Seva Sanstha, an association, last month.

A division bench of acting chief justice S V Gangapurwala and justice S V Marne has issued notices to the Centre and the state government, the conservator and director of forests and the deputy conservator of forests, SGNP, BMC, SRA, and the collector.

The PIL said that following the 1997 order of HC, based on a petition filed by Bombay Environment Action Group, basic amenities like water, electricity and transport to the settlements were discontinued and the authorities were directed to remove the settlements and ensure that there were no further encroachments.

Thereafter, in 1999, HC directed the authorities to relocate the slum dwellers, who had structures prior to January 1, 1995, to Kalyan. According to the state government, around 33,000 people were eligible for relocation and 20,000 unauthorised structures were demolished, the plea said.

The court had also directed the eligible families to pay ₹7,000 as relocation expenses to the state and a monitoring committee was appointed to oversee the process. Around 11,380 slum dwellers who paid the fee had been relocated to Chandivali till 2014 and their shanties were demolished. However, another 16,929 families who had paid the fee and 4,691 who did not pay awaited rehabilitation, the petition said.

The Sanstha, the plea said, wrote to various authorities and also met the chief minister in 2017, but nothing came out of it.

Finally in 2018, a government resolution was passed to conduct a biometric survey of the persons eligible for alternative accommodation. It was concluded in October 2018, putting the number of eligible people at 16,800, the PIL said. However, the authorities did not take any steps thereafter and this resulted in those eligible families living in sub-human conditions, the plea added.