While 15 families have already been vacated as per an undertaking to the BMC, 60 families continued to stay put sans electricity, gas and water supply

On Monday the BMC landed up at the society between 12.45 pm and 1.30 pm and warned residents not to resist, saying that they would be arrested by the Vakola police if they did. (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)

MUMBAI: After resolutely resisting evacuation from May onwards, residents of Kailash Prabhat CHS in BKC-Kurla finally gave up when the BMC disconnected their gas, electricity and water supply on Monday. The civic body has classified the housing society as a C1 (dangerous) structure, a rating contested by the residents.

On Monday the BMC landed up at the society between 12.45 pm and 1.30 pm and warned residents not to resist, saying that they would be arrested by the Vakola police if they did. (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)

On Monday the BMC landed up at the society between 12.45 pm and 1.30 pm and warned residents not to resist, saying that they would be arrested by the Vakola police if they did. (Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times)

While 15 families have already been vacated as per an undertaking to the BMC on June 21, 60 families continued to stay put sans electricity, gas and water supply. Some are elderly patients in a precarious condition.

On Monday the BMC landed up at the society between 12.45 pm and 1.30 pm and warned residents not to resist, saying that they would be arrested by the Vakola police if they did.

“The water supply was disconnected by ripping off the meter,” said resident Parvez Majeed. “After that, the gas and electricity supply was disconnected. In one of the buildings in the C wing, they hammered down the ground-floor homes that were vacated. They then went to the third floor and ripped open doors.”

Majeed pointed out that there was a dispute pending in court on how the BMC had not taken accurate area measurements and called commercial units residential and vice-versa. “We asked the BMC why it was breaking down doors when the area measurement issue is still being heard in Dindoshi’s city civil court,” he said. The hearing is on July 25 and residents will now approach the state government as well.

Meanwhile, the residents are managing as best as they can in their distressing circumstances. While patients on a ventilators and on oxygen were sent to nursing homes, the healthier ones are getting food from outside, water from tankers and living by candlelight. “If we vacate, they will demolish our homes to ground zero and we cannot let that happen without an assurance on redevelopment from the builder,” said Majeed.

“The BMC is planning to come on July 18 and 19 to demolish the buildings that are vacated but residents still live inside these,” he added. “It is in a mighty hurry to demolish them and is instilling fear in residents.”

Mehmood Ahmed, another resident, said that the disconnection of electricity had inconvenienced senior citizens, especially those who were sick since they were now unable to use the lift. Mohammed Aziz, an 82-year-old renal failure patient, was brought down from the seventh floor on a chair so that he could go for his dialysis session. “In the meantime, our lawyer has challenged the flaws in the development agreement (DA) in court and pointed out that many conditions were not fulfilled by the developer,” he said. “We are seeking to cancel the DA.”

HT has been reporting the tussle between residents and the BMC from June 11 onwards. Residents claim that the buildings can be refurbished based on five structural audit reports, including one by the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), which classified them under the C2b (liveable and repairable) category. But their fate was sealed on June 7, when the Supreme Court dismissed their plea to stall demolitions, relying on the BMC’s technical advisory committee (TAC) report in which the buildings were categorized in the C1 or dangerous category.

On June 21, the BMC went to Kailash Prabhat CHS to disconnect its electricity and water supply. However the protesting residents gained a 15-day reprieve after an undertaking was submitted that they would vacate their flats. Sixty families continue to stay put due to their uncertain future and in the absence of any assurance from the developer who has signed a DA with only some residents.