A woman and a child walk amidst the rubble (Pics: Satyen K Bordoloi)

Six days before Republic Day, the police came and clashed with the residents of Ganesh Krupa Society, Jawahar Nagar (popular as Golibar), Santacruz (E). They beat up and held many at the station, demolished 19 homes — some fully, some partially — and broke the doors of many homes even while old women bolted them from the inside. These residents face the prospect of many more such police reprisal on the place where some of them had settled over half a century back.

 

Here, a story of Mumbai vs Shanghai (the catch word for Mumbai’s ‘development’ rhetoric) is unfolding in a twisted way.

 

Ganesh Krupa Society is just one among the 46 Societies slated for rehabilitation by the SRA, in a 140-acre slum called Golibar. It is not an encroachment, but proper slum-like residence the likes of which over 60% Mumbaikars live in and legally pay property tax for.

 

These 46 Societies under redevelopment have 5360 members, of whom 4947 have been found to be eligible for redevelopment by MHADA and Shivalik Ventures and their houses earmarked for demolition for a project called Santa City. The land was brought under a 3K cluster development clause in the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) by the state who appointed a construction company Shivalik Ventures for this development. This 3K clause gives the state the right to bypass many statutory norms and is issued in extraordinary circumstances. The residents ask today about those ‘extraordinary circumstance’.  

 

Then, an RTI petition discovered that the company had signatures of 323 members supposedly taken at a GBM on Feb 7, 2009 where they are supposed to have given consent to the builder. What gives credence to the allegation of forgery, is the signature of a woman who has been dead since 2005. When the members tried to file an FIR on Feb 18, 2010, they were denied. Only when they moved the High court and the judge instructed the police, did they finally file an FIR on September 19 of the same year.

 

Republic Day with Medha Patkar (in red, right)

Despite all these irregularities, instead of ordering an enquiry, the state sent its bulldozers on January 20th. The residents guarded their home fiercely. A scuffle ensued in which many were roughed up and detailed at the Police station along with Medha Patkar. The police broke down 19 homes and confiscated a lot of the people’s belongings.

 

Then there is the question of a rehabilitation building built nearby where some families have already been ‘rehabilitated’. Only, they built it illegally on Air Force land who has now taken MHADA and Shivalik Ventures to court.

 

Despite these, forced by Medha Patkar, and emboldened by the presence of concerned citizens and activists, they did celebrate the greatest day for this nation’s democracy, even when their plight and the rubbles surrounding their uncertain future make you doubt the existence of ‘democracy’, at least here.

 

Jamila has come here from a slum in Mankhurd that was demolished in 2004. She says, “First they bulldozed unauthorised slums, now it is the authorised ones they are after.”

 

Retired judge of Bombay High Court, Justice Hosbert Suresh said, “The SRA act under which your houses have been destroyed is unconstitutional. It is not used to redevelop, but to throw people out.” The gentleness of his voice belies the anger of his words, “Republic means people’s power. Sadly today it is with the rich. Once they said, ‘workers of the world unite’. Today it is time when you say ‘poor of the world unite”.

 

The little boy with the flag has not gone to school since the 20th. His books, along with his family’s stuff, have been confiscated by the police. Right now though, as the meeting ends and people disperse, he goes and plants the flag atop a heap of rubble from the broken down houses. He salutes it, before rushing off to play with other kids.