Bombay HC Backs BMC Amid Mumbai Waterlogging, Makes Strong Remarks on Civic Responsibility

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said the residents don't need to blame only the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the recurring problem of monsoon waterlogging in Mumbai as it is their own creation due to encroachments, dirty drains and their use of public infrastructure.

The Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad was sitting to entertain the BMC's interim application for directions to the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to provide land to widen a road in Mandala village of the Sion-Trombay stretch.

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BMC Seeks Land For Road

Senior Advocate Milind Sathe, representing the BMC, had said that the civic body had already cleared encroachments and also had cut around 192 trees for the job in its area of the existing 30-foot-wide road. But the remaining land needed to broaden the road to 50 feet is owned by the DAE which manages the nearby Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).

The judge adds that public apathy is to blame

At the hearing, Justice Ghuge said the flooding of the city would not be attributed to the civic body. “We should stop blaming the corporation. The corporation gave us drainage lines. We filled up the drainage lines. They put pavement blocks. We started parking our cars on them,” the judge said.

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Encroachments on public property are common that cause flooding even after brief rains, he added. “We have an uncanny knack for grabbing lands. We put all the dirt and material inside that, we block the gutters... One small spell of rain blocks the roads in Mumbai. It's our own creation,” Justice Ghuge observed.

The judge noted that the footpaths were being used by photocopying vans, tea shops and juice booths, among other things, in areas outside the High Court. “You can't walk. What will the corporation do? Our habit is to rob our own motherland,” he remarked.

The Bench also condemned those who resort to legal protection measures when demolition work is underway. “When the corporation comes for demolition, you say ‘give me seven days' notice’. Then suddenly the law books are opened. When you grab the land, nobody reads the law,” Justice Ghuge said.