Unacceptable that school students in Mumbai should pass through existing slums for want of a public DP road: HC

Unacceptable that school students in Mumbai should pass through existing slums for want of a public DP road: HC

MUMBAI: Bombay High Court held that the civic body doesn’t lose its powers of superintendence over a public Development Plan (DP) Roads despite the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) being designated as special planning authority for encroachments and directed BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to begin work of removal of encroachments to ensure a Marathi medium school at Deonar and its students get a proper road frontage access.

The HC division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata recently said, “ the entire public purpose of a slum scheme is lost if the removal of encroachments on a public DP road is delayed because two authorities are unsure about who should do this work.’’

The HC was hearing a petition by Kumud Memorial Fund,an educational charitable trust that runs the school Kumud Vidya Mandir Marathi Medium School at Deonar. The plea was for a proper road access. The HC had last month observed there was “no safe access for students, staff and parents’’ to the co-ed school and all school children were forced to pass through a congested slum passageway.

A proposed DP road plot is presently encroached and a SRA scheme was underway the HC was informed.

“We see no reason at all why any student or teacher should have to pass through the existing slums …on foot or should, in default, be compelled to use the bus services in a roundabout fashion from another society to access the school,’’ said Justices Patel and Khata on January 4. “Viewed from any perspective, this is unacceptable. It affects the safety and security of students, staff, and teachers. This is a coeducational school,’’ they added.

The HC on the jurisdictional aspect said while SRA is a special planning authority, at the same time, there is a DP Road which is within the jurisdiction of the MCGM. “Traditionally, this has always been a tussle between these two authorities,’’ observed the HC adding, “ Each one says that the other must remove the encroachments. We are having none of it.’’

“ A road is a road. It is maintained by the Municipal Corporation. The fact that the SRA is a special planning authority only means that it supervises the sanctioned slum rehabilitation scheme. Nothing in the statute supports the theory that it is the SRA that thereafter maintains roads or provides regular municipal services. It may be the responsibility of the SRA to survey and assess the structures and persons to eligibility. But that does not mean that the clearance of roads or the maintenance of roads is no longer the responsibility of the (BMC).’’

Besides, the HC when informed that only the middle portion of the DP road was to be made said, “it is inconceivable that there can ever be a DP Road that is partly constructed to the left and the right but leaving a large stretch in between entirely encroached and unusable. That defeats even the commonsensical definition of a road.’’

The HC agreed to a request from the counsel for a developer appointed for the slum redevelopment and directed SRA to issue necessary provisional permissions to Supreme Developers by January 15 for three plots to enable slum scheme work to start. It also directed the State to issue acquisition notifications for three other plots by January 19 and for reconfirmation of eligible slums on the road plot after a joint inspection by SRA and BMC in coordination with developers’ staff, by January 25.

The HC directed the builder to construct a proper road connecting the portions to the left and right and hand it over to the BMC free of cost. “It cannot possibly be that encroachments and litigations result in an extra statutory modification of a sanctioned development plan,’’ observed the HC.

“We will also ensure thereafter that there are proper bus lanes and footpaths provided on that access road for safety of the students, staff and teachers of the school,’’ said the HC in its order, noting that the requirements of the school and the slum scheme must both be balanced and addressed together.

The BMC while removing the eligible structures must tell the occupiers of their eligibility to certain benefits which will have to be provided by the developer, said the Bench. These will include provisions for transit rent or transit accommodation, and the execution and registration of permanent alternative accommodation agreements, and ultimately the allotment of rehab tenements.

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