Campa Cola residents vow to stand their ground

The residents of the Campa Cola society, who stalled the demolition of their flats for two days, are preparing to stand their ground as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) prepares to raze the flats for the third day.

A resident of the compound said, "We are standing here for our rights. Until we get justice we won't go from here. Pressure on our minds is that what will happen now. What will they do to us next? We are under stress about that when will they give us justice. We are sitting here hungry."

The resident also added, "We are not able to get houses on rent also, people do not believe us. They feel we won't give them rent on time and are asking for double rent. People now know about Campa Cola. There are many buildings like this but investigation has only been done on Campa cola. BMC is making us suffer but there is no investigation on BMC. People are eating and making money even by throwing us out of our houses and are building their own palaces by that money."

The BMC had filed a police complaint against the flat owners for trying to prevent officials from implementing the Supreme Court order to raze the illegal building.

Anand Waghralkar, BMC deputy commissioner, had said on Saturday that the residents should not take the law in their own hands. He had also added that the police will enquire about those who have stopped us from doing our duty after identifying them.

The BMC was supposed to begin the building's demolition on Friday, by disconnecting power, water and gas supplies to all illegal flats. The residents, however, blocked the attempts of the authorities to enter the compounds.