Navi Mumbai: Citizens raise a red flag as slum colonies mushroom on Parsik Hill
NAVI MUMBAI: The residential part of the Parsik Hill faces fresh dangers of landslides and building collapses due to mushrooming of slum colonies, allege locals and environmentalists. They have also pointed out that retention wall around the hill is being usurped gradually for the purpose.
In a memorandum to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) commissioner Abhijit Bangar, the local groups in Belapur have drawn his attention to the fact that the slum colonies are springing up unchecked right behind the police commissioner’s bungalow on one side and towards the Sion Panvel highway on the other.
“The slums along the hill slopes are dangerous for the people who staying in them as they keep digging the area,” said president of Parsik Hill Residents’ Association Jayant Thakur.
The slum dwellers must be shifted and resettled as per the government slum redevelopment scheme, Thakur said, and added that a fear of landslide is also a possibility, like has been reported in parts of Mumbai hutments built on hill slopes.
“The slumdwellers seem to have settled well here under the watch of government officials as the shanties also have solar power roofs and get official water and power supply,” said Vishnu Joshi, a Parsik Hill resident.
NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar who met Bangar along with the residents’ representatives requested the NMMC to immediately build the retention wall around the hill. Bangar assured the citizens that the civic body will look into the matter so that no human tragedy occurs due to this issue.
With huge gaps at the cliffs, the area is accident-prone, Kumar informed Bangar.
The hill slope near the huge elevated water reservoir is being cut regularly, endangering the structure, Kumar pointed out.