But then, apart from the Crawford Market Development Project, the Shiv Sena-led BMC has also offered to hand over 25 per cent of Mumbai’s public grounds to private clubs, gymnasiums, restaurants and bars under a ‘Caretaker Scheme.’ Again, quite incidentally, the municipality already has a Rs 400 crore budget to take care of a mere 49 recreation grounds, but is happy to pass the buck to these eager wardens.

Good old land grab? Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh thinks so too. He should know. His Congress led state government hasn’t done badly either. In fact, the government’s Slum Rehabilitation Scheme has all but gifted Mumbai’s sprawling shanties to private developers in a scam rumoured to run into thousands of crores. Meanwhile, 273 acres of the city’s 320 acre mill lands have already been converted into swanky skyscrapers, malls and offices, leaving only 47 acres for parks and low cost houses for mill workers. Plus, a string of ‘minor amendments’ in housing laws and floor space indices have made it ‘legal’ for builders to tear down and ‘revamp’ old buildings, chawls, gaothans and housing societies. Now it’s time to eye 5,500 acres of eco-sensitive salt pans, with possibly another ‘revision’ in environmental laws to please the land sharks.

In short, between them, our public servants in the government and the municipality have already carved up most of the Mumbai pie, and offered it on a platter to the builders lobby.

None of our business? I don’t think so. For one, because Mumbai is not theirs to sell — it belongs to us. Because more buildings mean less living space, water, electricity and infrastructure for our children. Because this unscrupulous, unbridled, unplanned ‘development’ will eventually asphyxiate not just our city, but your life and mine. And because, ultimately, our indifference is as good as complicity.

... contd.