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SPOTLIGHT ON L WARD: - Utter absence of planning In fact, in mid September 2005, when the Mithi began to swell dangerously, it was the assistant municipal commissioner of L Ward, A N Khaire, who was woken up at 4 am at his Worli residence by an urgent phone call from the civic control room--if the river continued to rise, Kranti Nagar would be submerged. When the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority launched demolitions of "There's great anger everywhere in L Ward after the massive demolitions," says Prof A Siddiqui, chairman of the cooperative society at Taximen's Colony, Kurla. "The Congress or Nationalist Congress Party candidate is certain to be defeated." From Kranti Nagar to Bail Bazaar, Jari Mari to Saki Naka, L ward comprises several areas that absorb the overflow from the Vihar and Tulsi lakes. The utter absence of planning and widespread encroachments have meant that the area now houses some of Mumbai's dreariest and most uncared for areas. Bail Bazaar Municipal School has repeatedly seen rain refugees, dozens of slum families of Jari Mari are moved into a mosque every time there's a very heavy shower. The non-slum areas fare only marginally better. Chandivali is considered Powai's poor country cousin, too close to Saki Naka's pollution and traffic, dusty everywhere from the quarries nearby. Tungwe Village is home to a couple of thousand families displaced by various infrastructure projects, all housed in matchbox homes with little air circulation, insufficient water supply and minus good connectivity. "L ward is hardly a place to write about," says Vishal Shah, a collegian who rides his motorbike through Saki Naka's perpetual potholes every day. "But I guess it's a place that votes without fail." |
