‘We turned footpaths into pav bhaji stalls’: Bombay HC says Mumbai's flooding ‘our own creation’, can't blame BMC

THe Bombay heights margaret court on tues observed that Mumbai's revenant monsoon waterlogging cannot be blamed solely on the Brihanmumbai Municipal corp (BMC), saying that encroachments, blocked drains and misuse of public infrastructure have significantly contributed to the city's flooding problems.Hearing a matter related to road widening in Mandala village on the Sion-Trombay stretch, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad remarked that many of the issues leading to waterlogging stem from public actions rather than civic authorities alone.Also read | Flight operations hit in Delhi, Mumbai due to rains | Check airlines' advisories"We are destined to see rainwater on roads. We cannot help it. We have an uncanny knack for grabbing lands. We block the gutters. One small spell of rain blocks the roads. It is our own creation," Acting Chief Justice Ghuge said, reported Bar and Bench.The court also pointed to the misuse of public spaces. “Corporation gave us footpaths, we started having pav bhaji stalls on them. Our habit is to rob our own motherland,” the judge said.Court seeks DAE's response on road wideningThe observations came while the court was hearing the BMC's plea seeking land from the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to widen a road in Mandala village from 30 feet to 50 feet, the Indian Express reported.Also read | Rain wreaks havoc across India as floods, landslides disrupt normal lifeThe bench issued a notice to the DAE after the civic body informed the court that it had already removed encroachments from the land under its control and that the remaining land required for the project belonged to the department.BMC says widening depends on DAE landAppearing for the BMC, Senior Advocate Milind Sathe told the court that the civic body had cleared encroachments along the existing 30-foot-wide road, a process that also involved felling nearly 192 trees, the Indian Express reported.However, he said the additional land needed to expand the road to 50 feet falls under the control of the DAE, which oversees the nearby Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC).Also read | Mumbai marooned: All roads out of city hit by rain, landslidesSathe submitted that the civic body was ready to widen the road if the required land was made available.After hearing the submissions, the High Court observed that the Department of Atomic Energy would have to decide whether it was willing to provide the additional land required for the road expansion.