Bombay HC seeks names of cops not aiding demolition drive

MUMBAI: Bombay High Court has sought the names of police officers in charge of all those police stations which have refused to give the civic staff protection to remove hutments from pipelines providing drinking water to Mumbai.
A bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anil Menon on July 3 were informed by senior advocate S U Kamdar, appearing for Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, that one of the reasons for the delay was police refusal to protect its staffs.
BMC has moved an application in a pending PIL filed in 2006 about the threat to the safety and health of citizens due to encroachment on the water pipes which are over a century old. In 2009, HC had formed a committee to remove nearly 15000 hutments which are on the pipelines or even adjacent to it. The committee chalked a plan to remove the hutments by 2015 and shift eligible occupants to rehab tenements.
Kamdar said phase one is completed and a compound wall constructed. He said phase two is in progress but the drive is marked by stiff resistance, agitation and stone-throwing. He said the police is time and again requested for protection but has not granted it. Kamdar said recently Chembur police station refused protection to N ( west) officials. ``In view of the above, we are constrained to add the police commissioner as respondent,‘’ the bench said. It also directed ``the police commissioner and all others police officers to ensure police protection is given to the officers of municipal corporation whenever they request for removal of illegal structures in writing.”
The court extended the time limit for the second phase to September 15, the third phase to December 31 and the fourth phase to March 31, 2016.