Bombay HC restrains BMC from acquiring any gaothan properties

The Bombay high court on Tuesday temporarily restrained the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from acquiring any gaothans — areas in and around old villages — or properties in these areas.

A bench of chief justice Pradeep Nandrajog and justice Bharati Dangre was hearing a PIL filed by an organisation, Bombay East Indian Association, complaining about discriminatory treatment against the residents of Mumbai’s gaothans. The petitioner complained that although the Afzalpurkar Committee declared that there existed 179 gaothans in Mumbai, the BMC has recognised only 52 gaothans in the Development Plan (DP) 2034, with the remaining villages either left unmarked or wrongly classified as koliwadas. Besides, it has also complained that gaothans are being treated as “slums” to be developed under the guise of slum redevelopment projects.

The petitioner contended that under slum redevelopment projects, the original inhabitants have been given much smaller permanent alternate accommodations. It also complained about the civic body’s inaction in demarcating boundaries of gaothans .

The petitioner has cited the example of Kharodi gaothan, where a slum-rehabilitation scheme has been implemented, despite steep resistance from the locals, and now efforts are being made to declare Karol gaothan in Kurla as a slum, although it has been duly recognised as a gaothan in the DP.

The apolitical body has also highlighted the difficulties faced by residents of these gaothans in redeveloping their properties. According to it, the need for a 9-m-wide road to use FSI of 2 for any development in a gaothan area is a classic example of the difficulties faced by these congested localities in redeveloping their properties.

“Most gaothans would not have a 9-m road and creating one would be impossible, thereby depriving gaothan residents of their right to developing or otherwise dealing with their properties,” the PIL stated.

The PIL will now come up for further hearing after six weeks.

Earlier in the month, another bench of the court directed the Maharashtra urban development department to formulate a comprehensive policy to enable the redevelopment of gaothans across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).