The protest was held by residents of Saraswati complex, located at Anand Nagar in Dahisar east on Wednesday night and it continued till Thursday noon.
Agitated locals of Dahisar, tired of nuisance being created due to illegal private bus parking, staged a massive protest by blocking the exit of parked buses for two days. In fact, it was only after the bus operator gave in writing never to park buses there, did they relent.
The protest was held by residents of Saraswati complex, located at Anand Nagar in Dahisar east on Wednesday night and it continued till Thursday noon. Even local representatives as well as activists, who have been highlighting the violation by a developer accused of destroying pristine mangroves by dumping debris, too joined the protest.
"The entire land adjacent to our complex was full of mangroves, but since April last year dumping has been going on. Several cases have been filed but for the last few months over 100 private buses are being parked here, which causes damage to our private road. Also, the drivers create a lot of nuisance," said Rupesh Salvi, secretary of Saraswati Complex who added that he got a phone call from members of the building at around 8pm on Wednesday that they decided to stage a protest.
"We have been complaining for a long time and all the residents knew that there was no other way but to protest. Hence, we even informed our local councillor Sheetal Mhatre and she joined us," he added.
Former mayor and councillor Shubha Raul, who was instrumental in getting an FIR registered against the private developer for the destruction of mangroves to create a parking lot for private buses, said, "Over 100 buses are being parked and when citizens decided to protest, the cops arrived. Strangely enough, the cops were taking the side of the bus operator. We have filed and FIR against the developer and even MRTP notices have been sent but they have managed to get permission for a bore well and even electricity," said Raul adding that the developer has destroyed almost five acres of mangroves by dumping debris and has been renting the land for buses.
In fact, Mhatre who waited with local residents till 2am on Thursday, and came back to the spot again on Thursday morning, forced the bus operators to give in writing that they will not park the buses at this site anymore. It was only after that the locals removed their vehicles and allowed the buses to leave.
Harish Pandey, an activist who has been fighting against mangrove destruction at this site, appreciated that residents finally came out on the road to protest.
"It was in April 2015 that BMC asked police to file an FIR but the cops registered the FIR in November, which showed the lackadaisical attitude of the police and this is the biggest reason for all the violations going on at the spot," he said adding that every rule is being violated — from illegal dumping to destruction of mangroves to creating nuisance — but the cops were reluctant to crack a whip.
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