Lack of approach road leads to kanoon ka rasta

Around 35,000 residents living in 8,000 flats on Bakori Road in the Wagholi area have been struggling for over a decade to get the authorities to construct an approach road. The neighbourhood has been named after the road, which exists only on paper.

Even after holding protests, signature campaigns, meetings with government officials, elected members and making several representations over the years, no action has been taken to address their problem.

As a result, the Wagholi Housing Societies Association (WHSA), representing the residents of the Bakori Road neighborhood, has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court to demand the construction of Bakori Road. The only access road to the area has big craters, is partially constructed, and extremely hazardous for vehicles and pedestrians.

The neighbourhood has the lone unconstructed road, which exists only on the development plan (DP) for Wagholi. The DP was prepared by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC). It is still under process of being sanctioned by the state urban development department.

The access road was promised by various builders and developers, while selling apartment/flat units. Over 8,000 flats have already been constructed and around 35,000 residents are living on Bakori Road. Due to non-construction of the Bakori Road in Wagholi the residents are suffering daily. The patch is very hazardous, and several life-threatening accidents have already taken place.

The PMC and PMRDA have not even bothered to explain the difficulty in building the road. The PMC and PMRDA have the authority to construct Bakori Road.

Nitin Kumar Jain, director, WHSA, said, "Bakori road remains in a shambles ever since we started living in Wagholi 10 years ago. It is the only approach road for thousands of citizens living on this road. The plight of local residents is invisible to the caretakers of Wagholi with no compassion and humility towards them. The WHSA knocked on all doors. Many leaders came, promised but all in vain. Not a single authority has been able to do justice to the fight for our right to have an approach road. The WHSA is left with no choice but to approach Hon'ble court."

"Builders cheated the residents by giving false promises so do the sanctioning authority like the PMRDA. The nexus between builders and sanctioning authorities has resulted in punishment to residents. The dumb and deaf system forced us to approach the high court for justice," said Sanjeev Patil, director, WHSA.

The legal counsel of the petitioner, Satya Muley, said "The PMC, PMRDA, other local authorities and builders have all given only false promises to the residents, who have put in their hard earned money to buy their apartments in the duly sanctioned projects in Bakori Road area. In recent years, the local authorities have demonstrated complete insensitivity towards the hardships faced by the local residents, who are regular taxpayers. The fundamental Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India guarantees full enjoyment of life, which includes the right of enjoyment of proper roads, streets."

"The Hon'ble Supreme Court has held that the Right to Life includes civic amenities such as roads, etc. Without proper roads and streets, there is hindrance for the population at large to exploit their full potential of life. Since the WHSA and the residents of Bakori Road exhausted all other remedies, they moved the Bombay High Court to enforce their fundamental rights," added Muley.

Satya Muley
Satya is a leading Civil & Criminal Law lawyer from Western India.
He practices at Bombay High Court, the Supreme Court and Courts in Pune/Maharashtra & New Delhi.
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