In Maharashtra, Wagle Estate’s small-scale industrialists face eviction notices to accommodate cluster plan

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 as a portion of their plot from where they operate will be razed 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 that employ over 350 staff addressed the media on Wednesday, pointing out how they are being yanked off their established businesses due to the eviction notices despite them being legal occupants and tax payers for the last several decades.“We were slapped with the notice without taking us into confidence. How can we immediately wind-up business 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 said they have also approached deputy CM Eknath Shinde requesting his intervention to ensure that industry would not be displaced under the cluster plans.Meanwhile, the BJP has jumped into the issue and backed the industrialists with MLA Sanjay Kelkar warning the municipal authorities against “disrupting the industrial zone in the name of redevelopment” and else face a bitter protest.“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.