MUMBAI, 5 JUNE, 2025 (GPN/ SANJAY GIRI)  – The monsoon season has started early this year, and in this context, the All India Safai Mazdoor Congress has demanded that the sanitation workers’ colony in Gautam Nagar, Dadar should not be vacated during the monsoon season.

Meanwhile, the redevelopment of this colony has been stalled by the government for the past several years, which is making it difficult for the workers to afford it, said the organization’s president Govindbhai Parmar in his demand. Labor families have been living in this colony for the past 100 years.

For the redevelopment of this colony, the state government has issued 5 ordinances from 1985 to 2008 to implement the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Shramsafalya Awas Yojana. In it, it was proposed to provide them with ownership houses. For this, a provision was made to keep a reserve fund of 5 percent from the income of the municipal corporation for the sanitation workers.

However, Parmar has alleged that in the last 70 years, the workers have not been used for any educational or social work. According to the 1988 rule, sanitation workers who do not have service accommodation have been given 5 percent reservation in SRA, CIDCO or government development works as per this ordinance.

Still, those workers have been deprived for the last many years. 9 thousand houses were built for sanitation workers in Mahul village, Chembur. It was the government’s Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Shram Safalya Awas Yojana ordinance of 2008. In 2009, 50 houses were given free of cost to these sanitation workers. The remaining houses were promised. Now, in the same place, in 2025, the Municipal Corporation is giving these houses to the sanitation workers for Rs. 12 lakh.

Speaking on the occasion, Govindbhai Parmar said that this is an injustice to the sanitation workers and it is wrong to charge a fee now after paying as per the ordinance. Meanwhile, no one dares to live in the residence in Mahul village of Chembur from 2009 to 2025. There is a lot of pollution here due to Burma Cell and many gas companies. Therefore, the workers are not ready to buy a house here. Still, the sanitation workers are willing to live here.

Therefore, it has been demanded that they be given free houses as per the government rules. On the other hand, the monsoon season has started and 244 colonies in Gautam Nagar, Dadar are being built by a developer approved by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. We have no objection to that. However, the sanitation workers should not be shifted from here for the next 4 months of the monsoon season. It is being demanded that the work should be done after the monsoon season ends requested the All India Safai Mazdoor Congress Union.