Mumbai: More than 300 families residing in BIT chawls in Mazgaon's Tadwadi area have alleged that BMC snapped electricity and water supply connections yesterday to their 180 sq ft one-room-kitchen homes in a bid to force them into transit camps.
Around 11.30 am more than 250 civic officials and 300 cops entered building numbers 13, 14, 15 and 16, identified as 'extremely dangerous structures
For more than three hours more than a thousand residents, including women and the elderly clashed with cops. Around 3 pm power and water supply connections to 320 flats were snapped
Spread over 28,000 sq m the chawls in 2009 were declared dangerous structures. In spetember after the BMC building collapse in Dockyard, attempts to shift more than 4,000 residents to transit camps intensified in which 61 people lost their lives.
Civic officials tried to evacuate the chawls by snapping electricity and water supply in august, but the residents took to streets and the protest turned violent, resulting in police asking BMC to postpone the operation.
