The building collapse in Thane which claimed 72 lives was an accident waiting to happen. Muslim localities are sitting on a powderkeg, reports Danish Reyaz
About two years back in Thane’s Mumbra, it was not uncommon to see Fahim Ghare, a young man in his early thirties, hanging out with his bunch of buddies until he was able to lay his hands on a piece of land and erected a one-storey structure within a fortnight.
For a man who did not have much at hand, Fahim’s rise and rise can be considered symptomatic of the times we live in. Within no time, he was driving a brand new two wheeler. But the one-storey was not enough to fuel his ambitions. Within no time, the structure was raised three storeys high and Fahim had moved from driving his two-wheeler to handling a swanky Skoda sedan. For him, life had moved into the fast lane. From three, his building rose to nine floors, all within an unbelievable three months’ - on 1000 square feet of land. A vast migratory cycle ensured that people from low income groups came and settled in the building, the absence of water and power supply hardly any hindrance to their skewed existence. More than anything else, it was this sense of owning a piece of property, a place under the sun, so to speak, that acted as a catalyst.
Fahim is doing what many other young men have done all over the country in predominantly Muslim pockets – in Topsia, Beniapukur, Tangra and Tijala (Kolkata), Jamia Nagar (New Delhi) and Juhapura (Ahmedabad). They are all good examples to illustrate this phenomenon which is now a becoming a growing trend. Which is no small surprise because the one thing common thread that runs through all these ghettos are an utter absence of basic amenities like power, water supply, drainage, government schools, hospitals and access to transport.
Fahim has found a way to beat the system. The first and second storey of his illegal building has been cunningly sold to a school. Children, small and young descend there, study, play and leave safely for their homes.
So while the happy story continues, no one quite knows what lies tomorrow. Municipal officials say that given the time period within which this and other such buildings are `constructed’, safety issues are paramount and come to the fore only in accidents such as the building collapse in Thane which claimed 72 unfortunate people, most of them migrants, in April this year.
So while Fahim merrily continued with his `civil engineering’ feats in open connivance with municipal authorities, people in the neighborhood stood as mute spectators. The reason? His proximity to the local MLA and former mayor of Thane meant he had the system wired.
There are a number of Fahims to be found in Mumbra and elsewhere whose rags-to-riches story can only be matched with the pace of the structures they erect illegally.
Rajan Kine, corporator from Mumbra, puts the blame squarely on the municipal corporation and other authorities saying it is they who have allowed the illegal constructions to flourish. ``Without the consent from authorities, not a brick can be laid down for construction,’’ he says.
People like Fahim are quick to use such stagnant loopholes to carry on with their business uninterrupted. Technically speaking, the Mumbra-Kausa region falls into the forest area and due to its proximity to water bodies, does not lie in the “R” zone. Hence, according to rules and regulations pertaining to construction, the region is unfit for constructing residential structures. Rajan Kine alleges that since the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad came to power, construction of eight to nine storey buildings within a time span of three to four months has become the norm.
In Kolkata, the tale repeats itself – albeit tarred with a political brush. ``As far as illegal constructions in Topsia are concerned, all of them were constructed during the former Left Front regime,’’ points out Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata and a Trinamool Congress appointee.
Chatterjee now says that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is clamping down on illegal constructions of this kind. In the last six months, he says, 70 cases of illegal construction have been traced and 40 FIRs lodged. ``Illegal construction has become a hindrance to development in the City of Joy. After bribing anti-social elements and policemen, people construct illegal buildings,’’ says Kolkata-based architect Azim Danish.
Says Affan Ahmed Kamil, director at Urban Buildcon Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ``illegal construction in New Delhi’s Okhla is the result of vote bank politics. People, usually migrant labourers, are settled en masse and exploited as vote banks. This follows official recognition.”
According to media activist Ghulam Mohammed,``Mumbra, a Muslim ghetto, could have been a model town if the community had not been discriminated against by the communal governments of Mumbai and Maharashtra. Thousands of `illegal’ buildings all over the city and suburbs of Greater Mumbai are turned legitimate through bribe. However, for Muslim entrepreneurs, even that route is closed. So there remains no alternative for the so-called dropout 'builders' other than to take the 'criminal' route. They are forced to remain outside the legal and official framework. Mumbra could have been a planned city, just like Sharad Pawar's Lavasa. But Muslims have no political clout and no access to bank finances. They are forced to work with whatever means available to them. At least they are getting employment for themselves and their workers. If they had finances available like the Bohra community's Bhendi Bazaar Project, they could have come out with flying colours with their flair for entrepreneurship.”
Analysts believe the disastrous crash of the eight-storey building in Thane could have been avoided if authorities had recognized the genuine needs of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted during the Mumbai riots. Since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation continues to be run by the Shiv Sena that had unleashed the post-Babri Masjid riots of Bombay two decades ago, the gulf between the two communities is still wide and glaring.
Whatever the reasons – and there are many – there is no denying the fact that it is largely due to the lack of attention, deliberate or otherwise, on part of the corporations, that give rise to land sharks and the builder mafia in the society who in the absence of any regulator in the real estate sector, continue with their own merry illegal ways.
Clearly, there are more such collapses and deaths in the offing, but frankly no one is quite bothered. Typically, in the case of the Thane building collapse, after a few noises and a couple of lowly arrests, everything has been conveniently forgotten. For those who live in those hell holes, it was just another day in their lives.
About two years back in Thane’s Mumbra, it was not uncommon to see Fahim Ghare, a young man in his early thirties, hanging out with his bunch of buddies until he was able to lay his hands on a piece of land and erected a one-storey structure within a fortnight.
For a man who did not have much at hand, Fahim’s rise and rise can be considered symptomatic of the times we live in. Within no time, he was driving a brand new two wheeler. But the one-storey was not enough to fuel his ambitions. Within no time, the structure was raised three storeys high and Fahim had moved from driving his two-wheeler to handling a swanky Skoda sedan. For him, life had moved into the fast lane. From three, his building rose to nine floors, all within an unbelievable three months’ - on 1000 square feet of land. A vast migratory cycle ensured that people from low income groups came and settled in the building, the absence of water and power supply hardly any hindrance to their skewed existence. More than anything else, it was this sense of owning a piece of property, a place under the sun, so to speak, that acted as a catalyst.
Fahim is doing what many other young men have done all over the country in predominantly Muslim pockets – in Topsia, Beniapukur, Tangra and Tijala (Kolkata), Jamia Nagar (New Delhi) and Juhapura (Ahmedabad). They are all good examples to illustrate this phenomenon which is now a becoming a growing trend. Which is no small surprise because the one thing common thread that runs through all these ghettos are an utter absence of basic amenities like power, water supply, drainage, government schools, hospitals and access to transport.
Fahim has found a way to beat the system. The first and second storey of his illegal building has been cunningly sold to a school. Children, small and young descend there, study, play and leave safely for their homes.
So while the happy story continues, no one quite knows what lies tomorrow. Municipal officials say that given the time period within which this and other such buildings are `constructed’, safety issues are paramount and come to the fore only in accidents such as the building collapse in Thane which claimed 72 unfortunate people, most of them migrants, in April this year.
So while Fahim merrily continued with his `civil engineering’ feats in open connivance with municipal authorities, people in the neighborhood stood as mute spectators. The reason? His proximity to the local MLA and former mayor of Thane meant he had the system wired.
There are a number of Fahims to be found in Mumbra and elsewhere whose rags-to-riches story can only be matched with the pace of the structures they erect illegally.
Rajan Kine, corporator from Mumbra, puts the blame squarely on the municipal corporation and other authorities saying it is they who have allowed the illegal constructions to flourish. ``Without the consent from authorities, not a brick can be laid down for construction,’’ he says.
People like Fahim are quick to use such stagnant loopholes to carry on with their business uninterrupted. Technically speaking, the Mumbra-Kausa region falls into the forest area and due to its proximity to water bodies, does not lie in the “R” zone. Hence, according to rules and regulations pertaining to construction, the region is unfit for constructing residential structures. Rajan Kine alleges that since the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad came to power, construction of eight to nine storey buildings within a time span of three to four months has become the norm.
In Kolkata, the tale repeats itself – albeit tarred with a political brush. ``As far as illegal constructions in Topsia are concerned, all of them were constructed during the former Left Front regime,’’ points out Sovan Chatterjee, Mayor of Kolkata and a Trinamool Congress appointee.
Chatterjee now says that the Kolkata Municipal Corporation is clamping down on illegal constructions of this kind. In the last six months, he says, 70 cases of illegal construction have been traced and 40 FIRs lodged. ``Illegal construction has become a hindrance to development in the City of Joy. After bribing anti-social elements and policemen, people construct illegal buildings,’’ says Kolkata-based architect Azim Danish.
Says Affan Ahmed Kamil, director at Urban Buildcon Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ``illegal construction in New Delhi’s Okhla is the result of vote bank politics. People, usually migrant labourers, are settled en masse and exploited as vote banks. This follows official recognition.”
According to media activist Ghulam Mohammed,``Mumbra, a Muslim ghetto, could have been a model town if the community had not been discriminated against by the communal governments of Mumbai and Maharashtra. Thousands of `illegal’ buildings all over the city and suburbs of Greater Mumbai are turned legitimate through bribe. However, for Muslim entrepreneurs, even that route is closed. So there remains no alternative for the so-called dropout 'builders' other than to take the 'criminal' route. They are forced to remain outside the legal and official framework. Mumbra could have been a planned city, just like Sharad Pawar's Lavasa. But Muslims have no political clout and no access to bank finances. They are forced to work with whatever means available to them. At least they are getting employment for themselves and their workers. If they had finances available like the Bohra community's Bhendi Bazaar Project, they could have come out with flying colours with their flair for entrepreneurship.”
Analysts believe the disastrous crash of the eight-storey building in Thane could have been avoided if authorities had recognized the genuine needs of hundreds of thousands of families uprooted during the Mumbai riots. Since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation continues to be run by the Shiv Sena that had unleashed the post-Babri Masjid riots of Bombay two decades ago, the gulf between the two communities is still wide and glaring.
Whatever the reasons – and there are many – there is no denying the fact that it is largely due to the lack of attention, deliberate or otherwise, on part of the corporations, that give rise to land sharks and the builder mafia in the society who in the absence of any regulator in the real estate sector, continue with their own merry illegal ways.
Clearly, there are more such collapses and deaths in the offing, but frankly no one is quite bothered. Typically, in the case of the Thane building collapse, after a few noises and a couple of lowly arrests, everything has been conveniently forgotten. For those who live in those hell holes, it was just another day in their lives.
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