1. Topography of Vasai• To the east Sahyadri ranges, to the west Arabian sea, to the

north Bhayander Creek, to the south Vaitarna river.Archaeological finds have established that Sopara was oncean important sea port of western India. Trade flourished fromSopara to Ceylon during the Ashoka period. Sopara also has astupa from the time of Ashoka .Vasai today is divided intotwo parts by the north south traversing western railway.

• The west comprises of coastal and agricultural plain and theeast is mostly a hilly region with dense jungles at somepoints. Agriculture, carpentry and fishing are the traditionaltrades. Some private trusts and mainly the Catholic Churchhave done yeoman’s service in the field of education whichhas brought prosperity to the region.

• The local people by and large speak Marathiwhich is lingua franca .They are very proud oftheir local culture and traditions. Missionary workthrived in the 16th century and a large number ofthe locals embraced Christianity keeping link withthe local language and culture .

• 2. Vasai has heavy rainfall nearly 2000 – 2500 mm. Theoverflow of the rain water passes to both the creeksthrough natural water channels (nallas) which preventwater logging in Vasai. The whole area from theExpressway to the Arabian Sea was declared by the Britishplanners as a green zone .

• Till 1980 Vasai was a dreamy town. People of differentreligions lived in peace and harmony. The city dwellersvisited Vasai to enjoys its green beauty, fresh air andtender coconut water and toddy, if possible .The tahasilis known for communal harmony and peace .It has notwitnessed riots .In 1990s while Bombay was burning, lifeon the north of Bhayander creek was normal andtranquil.

• 3. The Population of Vasai according to the Censusof 1981 was 2, 81,000 ,most of them natives .ButVasai slowly started witnessing the spillover ofpeoples from the city. They were attracted bycheaper housing compared to the city. Because ofthe absence of proper planning authority, thedevelopment was haphazard and chaotic.

• The development took place around the railwayline ,which is a saline strip of land which liked freshdrinking water. Hence the builders started drawingfresh water from the wells in western Vasai.Hundreds of tankers plied from the green zone .

4. DERESERVATION• On 31 August 1988, the state government published one page

notice in the gazette and with a stoke of pen de-reserving about25 000 acres of land from the green zone to the residential zonewithout making any provision for the infrastructure, speciallypotable drinking water .

• This notice appeared only in Nav-shakti, a Marathi daily nothaving wide circulation. Of course the big builders were aware ofit and they began purchasing the lands from the locals with throwaway price .

• A Marathi daily Navakal ,alleged that a certain politician fromMaharashtra made Rs 1800 crores from this deal. Slowly the landprices started soaring to the skies. This decision of thegovernment led to drastic consequences as regards theenvironment, culture, and the topography of Vasai.

5. SOCIO- POLITICAL SCENARIO IN VASAI

• In the decade of 80’s Vasai was in the grip of the mafiagangs. Earlier they were involved in smuggling business.Local and national politicians also were involved in landdeals. Vasai had become the golden goose .The politiciansneeded local agencies to safeguard their interests and theanti social elements needed protection. So there was anunholy alliance between them The entire civic machinerywas paralysed.

• Anyone who dared to challenge was done with.By 7.00pm people were indoors and roads weredeserted. If someone was wronged and he or wentto the police authority, they were advised to settlethe matter or be ready for dire consequences. Thesituation could be likened to what is said in theBook of Deuteronomy “…the sword without andterror within”( 32:25 ).Everybody knew what washappening but no one was doing anything .TheChurch, as usual , keeping calculated silence.Murders were taking place during daytime and thefaithful were praying for peace without realizingthat that cannot be lasting peace without justice.

• People looked up to the political leaders but theyfailed in leadership. Everybody had given up thehope. Those who made unprincipled compromiseswere provided ‘protection’ of course that entailedpaying protection money.

• It was impossible for some to pray. We rememberedGod telling Moses, to stop praying and to dosomething.( ).Just thenthe development plan was published .The builderlobby was very much pleased. They rallied underthe umbrella of the local Mafia. If implemented itwould be a disaster for Vasai, but the powers thatsupported it, no one dared to dissent.

• At this moment I took the initiative and called a meetingof social and political activists of all hues and colours todiscuss the repercussion of the said plan. There was aheated discussion and a clear polarization. The supportersof the plan left the hall. The rest of us met on 1st April1989 and we formed an organization known as HARITVASAI SAURAKSHAN SAMITI ( HVSS). Because of fearpsychosis no one dared to head the movement. I wantedthe lay people to take the responsibility and I wouldextend my moral support but here was absolute silenceSome Mr Dominic Gonsalves, the sitting MLA from Vasaito take the reigns but he refused Then Mr John Almeida,a Congress leader , was requested but he decline and hein return suggested my name and everyone supported itand with much reluctance I volunteered to take theresponsibility.

• People needed to be informed what in store for them. Infact that is the duty of the political parties but since manyof them were involved in the construction work theypreferred to keep silence. HVSS took up the challenge ofcreating awareness. We organized study sessions andnoted town planners and architects such asChandrashekhar Prabhu and Subhash Avsare and othersinstructed us. Our teams in turn started ‘street cornermeetings’. While in the villages we heard terrifying storiesof terror.

• We realized against whom was our real fight . People werelike sheep without a shepherd and now they fullysupported us. We realized that we needed to have a publicdemonstration and so 1st Oct 1989 was fixed as a day ofmorcha. By Sept end we had conducted more than 200hundred street corner meetings .HVSS became the talkthe town. Print media both vernacular and English gave uswide publicity. Famous writers like P.L. Deshpande, V.V.Shirvadkar, Municipal Commisioner S.S. Tinaikar,Journalists Madhav Gadkari, Rajdeep Sardesai , NikhilWagle and many others openly supported the cause ofHVSS.

6. MORCHA 1st Oct 1989

• As HVSS was spearheading and was receiving widespread support from the general public, the oppositionwas alarmed . They tried to play the usual communal cardand tried to divide the community. They even threatenedto teach a lesson to the Catholic community since ,I washeading the movement .Some Catholic leaders pleadedwith us to give up the fight and to compromise.

• But in one of our meetings Mr Marcus Dabre, the generalsecretary of HVSS reminded us of the quotation fromDante, “the hottest places in hell are reserved for thosewho in a moment of crisis seek to maintain theirneutrality”. We were confirmed in our resolve. The clergywas divided. Most of them were with HVSS but somesupported the builder lobby. I was considered as the onewho causes division.

• In fact there always exists a division in the community. Itdepends on whose side you stand ,the rich and powerful or thepoor and marginalized .At this crucial moment Cardinal SimonPimenta stood by us like the Himalayas. On the day of theMorcha, ( 1stoct) we received anonymous calls threatening usthat goondas from Lalbaug would disrupt the Morcha. Mrmarcus Dabre rushed to Mantralaya to inform the homeministry about it .The morcha was a grand success, more than35000 people attended it. Mr Vijay Tendulkar addressed themeeting. We submitted a memorandum to the stateGovt,demanding total ban on construction work. Our sloganwas -’no structure without infrastructure’.

• The builder lobby and their godfather were alarmed. Theyorganized a counter morcha gathering construction workersfrightening them that they would be jobless. One Catholicpriest whose relatives were builders joined their morcha!!

7. WATER AGITATION• Meanwhile the tanker lobby carried on withdrawing

water from the wells of the farmers for constructionwork. Daily millions of liters of water was withdrawn fromthe wells of the farmers. As a result the water tablestarted receding and there was ingress of sea water whichled to increase in salinity of the soils. Besides the recklesstankers had killed half a dozen of innocent pedestrianincluding a seminarian. The tanker drivers went scot freebecause they were under the protection of the Mafia .

• The tanker lobby and their supporters flatly denied thatnothing was wrong with water quality because of overexploitation of well water. They did not trust the waterquality reports by AFRO ,Ahmednagar .

• protect the well water. Women joined in largenumbers since they were witnessing the effects ofsalinity. They tried to prevent water tankers andthere were clashes. The antisocial .elements werefurious. On the night of 18th May 1991 was theblack day for Vasai. The goons of the Thakur ganglet loose a spree of violence for more than 16hours. The police turned a bling eye. They let gothe goondas and arrested 32 men and women whowere agitating peacefully. Some of us servedbanishment notices by the police because we werea threat to law and order !!

• At this juncture the socially committed collector ofThane Mr. Shantaram Sagane entered in. Heunderstood the cause of the agitators and tried toput a check on the tanker lobby. The tanker lobbydemanded that a fresh water quality survey shouldbe conducted. The collector agreed and asked theThane Zilla parishad to carry on a random survey.All were awaiting the result of it . It proved thatthat the water quality was badly affected. HVSSwas vindicated.

• The Collector then banned well water extractionfor constructive activity. It was a triumph for HVSS.

8. CIDCO HATAO• On 14th May 1990 the Government of Maharashtra

appointed CIDCO as a special planning authorityfor Vasai-Virar sub region. It prepared a draft ofdevelopment plan for Vasai- Virar. The studycommittee of HVSS scrutinized the plan in detailand found out that if implemented, it could be adisaster for the sub region and would adverselyaffect the environment. The plan did not make anyprovision for the protection of the Green zone.

• A memorandum signed by 100,000 peoplepresented to the then Governor Mr .P.C. Alexander

• As a result the CIDCO had to revive its plan and thegovernment extended special protection to thegreen zone by limiting FSI to 0.33. Later CIDCO wasremoved from Vasai.

9. SOME OBSERVATIONS• In democratic set up people are sovereign. While taking

any major decision the people should be taken intoconfidence. No government can take unilateral decisions.

• People must exercise their civic right to represent thecause before the government authority by way ofmemoranda, agitations and march but always within theconfines of law and order .

• By and large people are not informed about thegovernment decisions, There should be study groups andhelp of experts should be sought. Knowledge is powerand ignorance is no excuse.

• Create a chain of committed activists who keep in touchwith the central body and disseminate information tolocal groups.

• We should have proper and latest documentation e.g.gazettes, surveys, reports and press cuttings.

• We must always stand by the demands of justice. Onemust bear in mind that without justice ,peace is notpossible. And works of justice are works of peace.

• Be judicious. As Jesus said, “But beware of men…”( Mt17:22).Check the integrity of the activists. Better to havedirect opposition than chhupe rustums or snakes in thegrass, informers etc.

• Study the cause and take a firm decision.

• As martin Luther King has said, “Cowardice asksthe question : is it safe?

• Expediency asks the question : is it politic?

• Vanity asks the question :is it popular?

• But conscience asks the question ;is it right? Andthere comes a time when one must take a positionthat is neither safe, nor politic, not popular ,butone must take it because it is right .”

• 9. Keeping in mind the teaching of Vatican II Church in theModern World ( Gaudium et Spes), “The joys and hopes,the grief and the anxieties of the men of this age,especially those who are poor or in in any way afflictedthese too are the joys and hopes, the grief and anxietiesof the followers of Christ “. the hierarchical Church shouldencourage struggles for justice. The Church must keep itsindependence and not be too pally with political leadersspecially those who are tainted. Like Jesus one must befree to say, if needed “Go and tell that fox…”

• 10. the power of the people. Remain united in the strugglefor justice .As Edmund Burke has said ,”” When bad mencombine, the good must associate, else they will fall ,oneby one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

GRATITUDE

• To Cardinal Simon Pimenta,

• Bombay Priests counsel ,SocialJustice cell, Bombay, Printmedia, various NGOS ,advocacygroups ,committed activists…