pavement

Andhra Pradesh

the middle

Human Rights Commission

women

Twelve students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) were charged at with lathis and detained by the Trombay police on Thursday for coming to the rescue of a community ofdwellers who were being evicted by BMC officials. Several of the pavement dwellers too were hit by police and detained. They were later released.The students said they were trying to prevent BMC officials from confiscating the homeless people’s belongings when the police and the civic officials used force on them. Around 15 TISS students have been working on rehabilitating the homeless people for ayear now.Ramchandra Ramaiya Siruvati, 36, one of the homeless, said the BMC officials and police took away their belongings, including aadhar and ration cards, burning their items without permission or notice.The 58 families of the masanjogi community, migrant workers from Karnataka and, had been living on the pavement opposite the Agarwadi bus stop for several years, said the students. After the pavements were taken over by the BMC and PWD, the community set up residence inof the road. The students later approached the Maharashtra Statewhich took suo motu cognisance of the case and has scheduled a hearing for December 13.“We have written to the BMC saying they need to at least arrange for some temporary accommodation for these people until a more permanent solution can be worked out,” said Alia Farooqui, a TISS student working on the project. The students are preparing a report on the matter, under directions from MSHRC.On Thursday, the masanjogi people alerted the students about the arrival of BMC and police officials to evict them. “We tried to reason with the officials that they could wait till the hearing on December 13, but they started hitting us,” said Siddharth Satija, one of the students who was detained.Dilip Thorat, police inspector of Trombay Police said the students had to be detained as they were thwarting BMC officials on duty. Senior Inspector Prasad Dhariya said police had received complaints from people in a residential complex opposite which the masanjogi had set up home: “We had detained 12 students and 12from the community. We have asked a BMC law officer for advice on what next to do,”he said.