Squatters living perilously close to rail tracks in inner Mumbai will be temporarily relocated to camps built on salt pans on the outskirts. The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra state government to prepare a list of salt pans that would be suitable for building transit camps for these squatters. The list is to be presented to the court in three weeks.A division bench comprising Chief Justice B P Singh and Justice N J Pandya, who are hearing a public interest petition seeking clearance of slums along railway tracks, announced its decision late last week. Maharashtra's advocate general Goolam Vahanvati told the court that the state government would remove the shanties in two phases, first with slum dwellers being accommodated in transit camps and later being rehabilitated in an alternative location. The salt pans are controlled by the central government and hence can only be used for transit accommodation.
The petitioner, an organisation called Citizens for a Just Society, is seeking demarcation of a 10-metre safety zone near railway tracks in order to prevent accidents. According to the railway safety commissioner's office, as many as 1,049 hutment dwellers were run over by trains last year. Most accidents invariably led to assaults on engine motormen.
The railway authorities and the state government are working out the modalities of clearing slums from railway property by December this year so that adequate land is made available for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (II). The cost of rehabilitating those affected by the project is to be shared equally by the two agencies.
Recently the Bombay High Court had ordered the railways to clear slums along railway tracks without waiting for a rehabilitation programme for the encroachers. The landmark judgement made it clear that slum dwellers and non-governmental organisations protecting them cannot be allowed to hold commuters to ransom.
There are more than 26,000 hutments along the Western Railway route and the two sections of Central Railway in Mumbai. Nearly half of them are concentrated on the busy Harbour Branch line. This affects the speed of trains and safety of passengers. Against the usual speed of 50 km an hour for a "fast" local train, motormen slow down to less than 15 km an hour in several places to avoid mishaps. Maintenance of railway property too is affected as the shanties block access to engineering installations. -India Abroad News Service
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