Bay View Marina garden

Cuffe Parade

slum children

City collector Shivajirao Jondhale

BMC

Machimar Sangathana

PHOTO BY RAJU SHINDE

… Collector places a condition that themust be open to slum kids as well.A garden in, which became symbolic of a class tussle, will be handed back to the area’s wealthy residents, but with a rider. It must be open to the common public, including, who were stopped from entering the garden last year, leading to a clash of sorts between the haves and the have-nots.has proposed to the state government to hand over the Bay View Marina garden to Cuffe Parade Residents’ Association (CPRA) for 10 years and barricade the garden compound wall with an iron net to prevent slum encroachments. This decision was taken recently after therejected the proposal to maintain it as the civic body wasn’t the planning authority for the garden.But the proposal comes with a rider. “This garden will be open to all public and even slum kids. Nobody will be denied entry,” said Sampat Davkar, resident deputy collector. “We need to protect the land from encroachments. The BMC rejected the proposal stating that it wasn’t the planning authority for the garden.” Davkar added that there was no lease agreement with the CPRA, who would only be caretakers of the garden to protect it from encroachments. “They will be in no position to restrict entry to the common public,” Davkar insisted.Former city collector Sampada Mehta had cleared the path for equal park access in March this year, when she had informed the BMC that the permissions given to CPRA to look after Bay View Marina garden for five years had expired, and that the city’s civic body should take over the responsibility.Mirror had reported on the fight for equal access in October last year. The latest decision of the collector has come as a setback for slumdwellers from thewho had accused the CPRA of treating the 3.5-acre garden like an exclusive space for affluent families.Slum resident Rajkumar Chouhan, who had last year complained about poor kids being driven out by guards hired by the residents’ association, found the Collector’s latest proposal unfair. “This is a sure-fire method of denying entry to poor kids for the next 10 years. This is unfair. We wanted the BMC to maintain it and didn’t want it to go back to the CPRA.” He also claimed that the CPRA have erected bamboos on the football ground. “We have learnt from the guards that the ground will be used for parking vehicles,” said Chouhan.CPRA secretary Padmakar Nandekar was understandably happy with the decision. “All our efforts to protect this open space from slum encroachments have been noticed by the senior officials.”The 3.5-acre garden plot called Bay View Marina in Cuffe Parade was handed over to CPRA in 2005. Its members have claimed that over the years they had spent over Rs 12 crore to protect the green lung from encroachers and convert it into a stunning garden with a walking and jogging tracks, a play area for children and a meeting point for the young and the old.