MHADA starts inquiry into mangroves encroachment

 Probe follows Newsline report
 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

FOLLOWING a report in Newsline (NCP leader's trust accused of encroaching on
mangroves, published on September 20) on the alleged encroachment of
mangroves land in Lokhandwala, Andheri, the owner of the land, Maharashtra
Housing and Development Authority (MHADA), has started an inquiry into the
matter.

Residents of Shiv Kutir building, the last building on the edge of the
Versova creek, had accused the administration of Janki Devi Memorial School,
headed by NCP leader Narendra Verma, of dumping rubble on the mangroves.
''We sent an officer to inspect the site and will submit a report on the
matter soon,'' said S Sonawane, Chief Officer Mumbai Board, MHADA. ''We also
lodged a complaint in the local Versova police station,'' he said.

Verma, who is the spokesperson for NCP, vehemently denied the residents'
allegations. ''I had got a temporary pathway made from rubble for the school
buses to ply but not even a single mangrove was touched during this process.
In fact, the land where this pathway has been created never had mangroves
but only a slum which I got cleared,'' he said.

The residents of the area have already approached Home Minister R R Patil,
MHADA Vice-President I S Chahal, Environment Secretary Sharwaree Gokhale and
Deputy Commissioner of Police of Zone IX V K Chaube regarding this
decimation of plants reserved as protected by the state and violation of
Coastal Regulation Zone norms.

''Mangroves have been systematically destroyed here. This is not a personal
grouse against Verma but first he cleared the mangroves and then let the
labourers working in his school occupy shanties on the same plot,'' said
Seema Sahu, who lives in Shiv Kutir building. ''Let the official probe
establish the facts,'' she said.

Rishi Aggarwaal, a member of NGO Mangrove Society of India, who has been
active in monitoring the mangroves bordering the Versova creek in the middle
of this huge urban sprawl since the last five years also contested Verma's
claims.

''The destruction of mangroves here has almost been executed like a script.
First, settle a slum on the mangroves then clear it to be able to use the
land for yourself,'' he said. ''In fact, I had first caught a truck dumping
rubble here on the behest of Verma in 2002,'' he added.

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