The residents of Chembur have won a battle, which they were fighting since the last five months.
The residents were fighting to save an open space that was encroached upon; the ward office on Wednesday had issued a notice to the encroacher. Hindustan Times had first reported the residents struggle to reclaim the open space on February 10.
The open plot was approximately 10, 000 sq-ft and belonged to collector at Pestom Sagar Road No 6, opposite Anjana Co-operative Housing society.
“They have been issued a notice to evacuate and then we will demolish the semi- permanent structure. We wanted to demolish the encroachment yesterday, but did not get enough police protection and hence could not demolish it,” said a senior official.
The residents are very happy with this move of the civic body. “It will teach the encroachers a lesson, and such actions will also encourage others to raise their voice,” said G.R.Gaonkar, a resident from Chembur. But this success hasn’t come to them easy, as they had been running from pole to post to get their voices heard.
“It’s been 4-5 months that we were complaining to the collector and the BMC but nothing was being done. We have been sending various letters and applications to the concerned authorities right from the BMC to collector to police Authorities to the Chief Minister and now also to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB),” one of the resident said.
{{/usCountry}}“It’s been 4-5 months that we were complaining to the collector and the BMC but nothing was being done. We have been sending various letters and applications to the concerned authorities right from the BMC to collector to police Authorities to the Chief Minister and now also to the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB),” one of the resident said.
{{/usCountry}}The residents plan to maintain the open space and will also keep a check on encroachments. “As it’s the only open space available for the school in the vicinity, we want it to be encroachment free,” added Gaonkar.