BMC's clean nullah claim called out by Congress as a whole lot of garbage

Mumbai: Exposing BMC’s tall claims of exceeding their desilting target ahead of the monsoon season, former member of opposition Ravi Raja from the Congress called attention to the incomplete work done by the civic body, particularly the nullah at Kokri Agar in Wadala.

Part of the nullah falls in the Sidharth Nagar slum, also called New Transit Camp, where garbage is packed in every inch, stagnating the flow of the water. Garbage also lay pooled at the sides of the nullah, with cows, goats, crows, and teeming flies, all adding to the stench.

“The BMC, as per their tenders, is supposed to remove the silt from the nullahs till its depth. But all it has gone is a surface-level job,” said Raja. “This is why the gutter water is not flowing at all and the level has come to quite a level. If it rains hard, all the gutter water will spill over into the slum.”

Many residents of the area echoed this view, expressing concern for school children who wade through the sewer water to go to school. The road abutting the slum is a kaccha one, and pools of dirty water and mud lay at many spots.

At many spots, garbage lay spread on the ground. “There is a lady who comes to collect garbage from our doors, but she is very selective and only collects it from houses who pay her a certain amount, around ₹25, every month. Many people just end up throwing the garbage out or in the nullah,” said one resident, Yusuf Mohammed.

Minutes after Raja left the scene, a resident walked up to the main designated garbage spot in the slum, where a half-filled garbage can was surrounded by a whole circumference of garbage. She ventured two steps into the garbage and dumped the trash on the ground.

Mohammed explained, “No one can go up to the garbage can because garbage and mud surround it. If the lady goes deeper in, she might get cut by glass as she steps into the garbage. This is why we’re demanding a proper road be built so people can properly access the garbage can.”

Many other nullahs are in the same condition, including the Somaiya nullah in Chunabhatti and the one by the railway tracks in Mankhurd, as seen by HT on Thursday. Heavy rain could threaten a spillover in all these cases.