Thane's Wagle Estate Industrialists Face Eviction for Cluster Redevelopment
Thane: A group of small-scale industrialists from Wagle Estate have been issued eviction notices by the Thane municipal corporation with a 48-hour deadline to vacate their premises. This is to accommodate the cluster redevelopment project being implemented in the area. Owners of around 16 of 30 units operating from the Ferrodie Compound on Road No. 22, which employ over 350 staff, addressed the media on Wednesday. They highlighted the suddenness and severity of the eviction notices, despite them being legal occupants and tax payers for several decades.
We were slapped with the notice without any prior consultation. How can we immediately wind up our businesses and relocate elsewhere? The action could directly impact over 350 workers and over 1,400 dependents, besides causing significant financial losses to the units. We should be rehabilitated adequately,” said a member of the Thane Small Scale Industries Association.
The group has also approached Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, requesting his intervention to ensure that industry is not displaced under the cluster plans. Meanwhile, the BJP has jumped into the issue and backed the industrialists. MLA Sanjay Kelkar has warned the municipal authorities against “disrupting the industrial zone in the name of redevelopment” and has threatened a bitter protest if the notices are not withdrawn.
We are not opposed to cluster redevelopment, but why are these functioning industries being unnecessarily targeted? There are many illegal hookah parlours operating in the city and scores of illegal structures which are built and ignored, but there seems to be an undue urgency to bully and raze these legal small-scale industries,” Kelkar said, aiming a barb at the Shiv Sena-led municipal corporation.
A response from the Thane municipal corporation is awaited. The industrialists and their supporters are hopeful that a more compassionate and just solution can be reached, one that respects the rights and livelihoods of the affected workers and business owners.
