By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
Mumbai: The Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan yesterday reassured a delegation of Behrampada fire victims that they will soon be rehabilitated.
Three days after a blazing fire had caught Behrampada, a suburban area in Mumbai, the CM had visited the spot and made a promise that the victims will be shifted in the transit camps to be constructed in the nearby vacant plot.
When no activities regarding the construction of the camps could begin 20 days after the promise, a 10-member delegation including Ikramuddin Ansari, Umar Qureshi, Irshad Ahmad Shaikh, Badar Khan, Abi Ahmad and Muhammad Yaqub etc., of different Bandra societies met Ashok Chavan at his office in Mantaralya and reminded him of the promise.
Urdu daily Inquilab has reported that after a 45-minute meet, the CM assured that the victims will be rehabilitated at the same spot where their houses were and the work will be started within eight days after concerned officers hold a meeting on Wednesday with the Behrampada people to assess the damage and requirement.
He said nothing about the transit camps’ construction on the plot. Locals reportedly alleged that some people interrupted the construction on the plot saying that the plot and the Behrampada area were of the Indian Railways property.
According to the reports there are 11 pregnant women among the victims.
In the Muslim dominated Behrampada fire began in the early hours on June 18, hundreds of shanties were burnt in a short time and according to locals nearly a dozen persons were charred to death. The affected people of the fire since then have been living under the nearby Sky Walk and in relief camps.
Behrampada in Bandra (East) is one of the biggest slums in the city and is home to nearly 70,000 people living in about hundreds of four-storeyed structures which spread over 7-acre land, jointly owned by the railways and the state government.