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| Sitaram Prajapati standing outside the structure built after the fire gutted the whole area on December 7 |
Mulund Plus impact
K P Babu, Mulund
Finally, the slum dwellers that lost their homes in the December 7 fire at Hira Nagar on Link Road are getting back their homes. In the previous issue, Mulund Plus had reported how the slum dwellers who lost their homes were unable to reconstruct their dwellings. For more than two weeks people who lost their homes in the fire had to live in the open.
Around 70 chawl-type shops and homes of the poor people were gutted in the fire. The slum dwellers had raised allegations that local corporator, AK Shoki and a local goon named Kulkarni were preventing the reconstruction of their homes.
According to the residents, Shoki asked them to handover the plot for development. However, when contacted, Shoki had denied these charges. Following the report in Mulund Plus, it seems, the situation has changed in favour of the poor people.
Says Sitaram Prajapati, a 48-year old resident who lost his home in the fire, "After the report appeared in the paper, the corporator came and told us that we had misunderstood them. Then she supported us to reconstruct the homes." He adds, "I have reconstructed my home already. Others are also constructing their homes and the corporator has been helpful now." "Now, there is no issue. We are rebuilding our homes," says a woman resident from the slum.
On contacting Shoki, she repeated her claim that the slum dwellers had misunderstood her. "I was only trying to help them. I thought if they come together, then a developer can be appointed and they can get flats if a building is constructed." She continues, "However, I thought I should not force them with my idea. They wanted just their huts and I decided to help them get that."
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