By: Keyur Seta

I am shocked with disbelief at the happenings outside Mumbai’s Campa Cola Compound in Worli. Hundreds of families have been staying in it for around 25 years. They bought their houses from their hard earned money. Plus, they have been paying regular taxes all these years. But now Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is all set to demolish their houses just because of a shoddy crime committed by the builder and the politicians.

Just try to imagine this – The builder plays a game of crook with the politicians to earn huge sums of money by constructing three illegal floors in the buildings. Oblivious to this fact, a number of families buy flats on these floors. They keep paying taxes for 25 years with the BMC having no clue about the scam.

Now after 25 years, the BMC somehow get enlightened about the scam. So what do they do? They forcefully try to vacate the innocent residents from their home sweet home. They are not provided with any other option or compensation whatsoever! They are common people like me and you. Where will they go now?

How justifiable is to torture the Common Man for the shoddy crime committed by the builder-politician nexus? Where the hell are we heading? I am not sorry to say that the British Raj was better!

These poor residents are literally begging to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan to intervene and help but the he has no time for them. Of course, he has all the time to attend Sachin Tendulkar’s felicitation!

What’s more annoying is how scams worth thousands of crores are being allowed in our country. These criminal politicians are roaming scot free while innocent residents are turned into beggars. Also, we all know the extent of corruption in BMC itself. Despite spending hundreds of crores for better roads and other welfare of Mumbai, hardly any work is done. One doesn’t need to be a genius to realize that this is nothing but shoddy corruption. Why no action against any such terrible crimes? Will law be used or rather misused only to punish innocents in such a terrible manner?

As I write this, the poor residents of Campa Cola Compound are struggling and begging for their homes to be returned to them. At any moment their shelter can be snatched away from them for no fault of theirs!

Now all eyes are on the happenings at Campa Cola. If the Common Man is strangled now, it will be proved that we are living in a lawless land!