The Thane Municipal Corporation authorities carried out a demolition drive in the illegal slums of Kalwa (east) on Monday.
Thousands of slums
had mushroomed on the four-acre plot, which is owned by the Mafatlal Company.
On Monday, the civic authorities demolished 2,983 illegal structures with the help earth-moving machines and the police force. The demolition drive will continue
on Tuesday, wherein another 3,000 illegal structures would be razed down.
The land is located adjacent to a defunct unit of the company, which is under litigation, and the land in question is currently in the custody of the court. Thousands of slums have encroached on the private land belonging to the Mafatalal group of companies.
The slums have become a hotbed for criminals, who have been engaging in illegal activities like making and selling illicit hooch, gambling and stealing metal and machinery from the defunct unit of the company.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Mafatlal Company workers’ union Mr Sanjay Wadavkar had written to the chief minister Ashok Chavan. In his letter, Mr Wadavkar accused the police of conniving with the gangs that carried out rampant theft inside the company’s defunct unit.