Tension gripped the Campa Cola compound at Worli in south-central Mumbai all through Tuesday, as the residents occupying the 35 illegal floors spread across seven buildings in the housing complex resisted vociferously the efforts by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to evict them from their unauthorised flats.
Not wanting to take any chances in an emotionally-surcharged atmosphere prevailing in the controversial housing complex, the BMC officials deferred the eviction operation by a day. The civic officials called off the proceedings for the day around 5.15 pm, after discontinuing power supply to eight vacant flats in three of the seven buildings and disconnecting a gas connection. They will resume the operation on Wednesday morning.
A day after the Supreme Court-set deadline for the eviction of residents occupying the illegal flats in the complex ended, a team of 20 BMC officials — accompanied by the police personnel — entered the Campa Cola complex around 3 pm, after persuading the agitating residents that they would not undertake the eviction operation later in the day, but would merely conduct a survey of the illegal floors in the complex.
The BMC had on Friday last served fresh notices on the 90-odd families occupying illegal flats in the Campa Cola complex asking to vacate their flats on or before November 11 — in line with an order passed by the Supreme Court on October 1, 2013, giving 41 days’ time to the affected families to vacate their flats to facilitate their demolition.
Ahead of the scheduled start of eviction operation on Tuesday morning, the Campa Cola housing complex had virtually turned into a fortress, with the agitating residents blocking the three gates to the housing society to prevent the officials of the BMC, Bombay Electric Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) and Mahanagar Gas
limited (MGl) from entering the complex to execute the Supreme Court’s October 1, 2013 order of eviction. Slogans of “We Want Justice....We Want Justice...” rent the air, even as the residents vehemently resisted the efforts by the civic and other officials to gain entry inside the complex.
Apart from lining up vehicles near the main gate blocking the entry of officials inside the complex, the residents were also squatting near the three gates, in an effort to prevent physically the BMC and other officials from barging inside the complex. Several elderly residents were seen staging a protest under a make-shift pandal erected near the entrance where they had put up “Save Campa Cola” posters and banners.
Talking to media persons, 58-year-old Dr Pradeep Joshi — who lives in flat no 801 on the eighth floor of the 17-storey Orchid building inside the Campa Cola complex- said: “If we are agitating today, it is to save our homes. My family members and I have been living in this complex since 1989. We have no other place to go. I can’t afford to buy a new one bedroom flat in this locality or anywhere in Mumbai. I had purchased a flat in this complex after borrowing money from friends”.