Mumbai: 16 Arrested For Pelting Stones At Cops During Demolition

(MENAFN- AsiaNet News)

The Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested 16 individuals for allegedly pelting stones at security personnel during a Western Railway-led anti-encroachment drive near Bandra railway station (East) on Wednesday. The accused were produced before the Bandra Court earlier today.

According to police officials, the mob reportedly pelted police with stones and paver blocks for nearly an hour during an anti-demolition drive. However, the situation was brought under control. Five police personnel sustained severe injuries during the clash, including one officer who suffered a hand fracture and another who sustained a broken nose. Additionally, ten other personnel reported minor injuries.

Details of the Demolition Drive

The Western Railway authorities began clearing unauthorised structures starting on Tuesday as part of an infrastructure and land redevelopment exercise. The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) had recently auctioned nearby land to private developers for modernisation projects. This drive is being carried out in coordination with the civic administration, police officials, and railway security agencies to ensure that law and order are maintained.

Railway Officials Address the Situation

Western Railway, CPRO, Vineet Abhishek said they are ensuring that the demolition goes about without any trouble. "We started this demolition drive on May 19th. There's a lot of planning behind it. There's support from multiple departments: City Police, State Authorities, District Administration, and Railways. We are all carrying out this entire demolition drive together. As we've seen, about 1000 to 1200 people are deployed here daily. On the first day, we completed almost 20% of the demolition. On the second day, we completed almost 60%. Today, cumulatively, we've completed almost 85% of the demolition. During this entire operation, we are ensuring that no one faces any kind of trouble or gets injured. Look, there's heavy machinery, almost 13 to 14 big and small machines are working. During this, we are doubly ensuring that all safety protocols are followed for the local people. If anyone needs anything, we are fulfilling that too. Yesterday, throughout the day, more than 2000 water bottles were distributed. In the evening, packed meals were distributed. This matter is indeed sensitive and we understand that. This is a complicated issue, but we want to express our gratitude to all our passengers, whose great support we are receiving, multiple authorities whose great support we are receiving, and people in this area can also see that once this entire area is cleared, we will be able to execute more capacity augmentation projects here, which will allow us to run more trains in the future, providing direct benefit to the people of Mumbai and the rest of India," he said.

The Railway official said that a large contingent of City Police and Railway Protection force had been deployed to ensure there is no trouble during the process. "It would be a bit of an exaggeration to say that the situation had worsened. Look, yesterday for 10 to 15 minutes, there was a small issue, but as we all saw, it was immediately tackled and taken care of. Even during that time, work was ongoing, and it's ongoing even now. Whenever such work, such projects are planned, we visualize multiple aspects, pre-empt multiple scenarios, and accordingly, a dedicated team is formed. Here we saw that about 1200 staff were deployed yesterday, which included various contingents from the City Police, 250 from RPF, 200 from GRP. Today also there's a similar deployment and we are ensuring that there's no issue, but the good thing is that we are getting full cooperation from all sides," he said.

Rehabilitation Demanded for Displaced Residents

Congress leader Hussain Dalwai however objected to the manner in which the demolition was being carried out saying that the people who had been living in the area should be rehabilitated. "People have been living in those slums for the past 30 years. They built those huts on marshy land where there was nothing but mud, because they are poor and have no other place to go. The area is literally named 'Garib Nagar' (City of the Poor). Before carrying out such demolitions, a proper survey should have been conducted to provide them with an alternative location. While the railways need to build facilities and we don't oppose development, uprooting poor people in this manner without rehabilitation is wrong. On one hand, our Chief Minister says everyone will get a house in five years, and the Prime Minister says no one will remain homeless, yet you are demolishing their homes," he said.

High Court Upholds Demolition

The Bombay High Court had allowed railway authorities to proceed with the demolition of unauthorised structures encroaching on railway land, observing that the accumulation of settlements and waste posed a threat to railway infrastructure and track safety. The land will be used to facilitate 50 new originating trains from Mumbai and the expansion of Bandra Terminus.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Asianet Newsable English staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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