The area is known as ‘Christian Gaon’ and the notice refers to shanties there, says official
Christian Gaon in Kurla West on March 7. According to residents, the settlement’s history spans over half a millennium and is deeply connected to Mumbai’s heritage
The East Indian community and residents of Christian Gaon in Kurla yesterday decided to protest the municipality’s notice labelling the old gaothan a “slum”, and have begun collecting signatures on a petition to the chief minister and the BMC commissioner.
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Amid the ongoing protests and controversy surrounding the notice, the CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) clarified that the SRA has no involvement in the matter. Speaking to mid-day on Friday night, Dr Mahendra Kalyankar stated, “Gaothans and Koliwadas do not come under the jurisdiction of the SRA, and we do not survey them. The SRA only conducts surveys of slum settlements.”
Dated February 28, 2025, the BMC notice, affixed to one of the walls in Christian Gaon, states: “A biometric survey of all slum dwellers within the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is being conducted by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) through its appointed external survey agencies.”
The survey will include numbering of structures, GIS mapping of affected areas, fingerprint collection, photographic documentation, and detailed data collection on each resident. However, a senior official from BMC’s L Ward clarified, “This is a misunderstanding. We are not surveying any households in the gaothan but only 45 shanties within the area that are recorded in government documents.”
When asked why the notice specifically mentions Christian Gaon, the official explained, “The area itself is known as Christian Gaon, and the 45 shanties listed in our records also fall within this locality. This does not mean that the entire gaothan will be surveyed. We have already conveyed this to the elected representatives, and I am confident that the confusion will be resolved soon.”
Outraged community leaders held an emergency meeting late on Friday evening to strategise their next course of action against the BMC and SRA. The East Indian community, which has fought for decades to safeguard the identity of gaothans, sees this move as yet another attempt to erase their heritage and pave the way for outside interests, they said.
Gleason Barretto, founder trustee of Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, said, “These shanties are located on the periphery, not within the limits of Kurla Christian Gaon. The BMC must issue a specific notice that correctly identifies the area. The term ‘Kurla Christian Gaon’ should be removed from the notice.”
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