An eye on AKEI

It is all for one as Agris Kolis and East Indians have come together under the AKEI umbrella to push for their voices to be heard and specific community related issues to be brought to the forefrontUnitedBryce Rodricks Andheri Taluka sarpanch said ldquoAKEI in the local dialect means united voices or together as one It is perfect as AKEI the acronym also represents the three groups who are the bhoomiputras or sons of the soil This has been initiated by the Mobai Gaothan Panchayats across the cityrdquoRodricks claimed a big part of AKEI which is still in the nascent stage with different aims being mapped out is political representation at different levels of the government from grassroots to the very top ldquoPolitical parties have not thought about usrdquo claimed Rodricks When asked to specify why the communities feel neglected he stated ldquoOur demands for land for a cultural bhavan for instance have gone unheeded Recently there have been closures of fish markets hitting the Koli community We want these issues to be taken up by politicians and leaders If they are not then we have to enter the political stream ourselves and see that these are just some of the problems that are addressed One of the aims of AKEI is just thatrdquoRepresentatives feel that a key issue here is ldquoa lot of East Indian farm land has been taken away years ago by the government For instance we were told that land near the current airport was needed to build a defencemilitary airport more than 60 years ago or roundabout It was taken with hardly any compensation peanuts or no compensation at all from the sons of the soil Today a private airport stands there no military airport Our lands were taken away on different pretextsrdquo they claimedAlso read Revival looms for the lsquolugrarsquo How two Mumbaikars are saving an East Indian sari from obscurityDemarcationSagar Patil president Thane Gaothan Pade Koliwada Savardhan Samiti said ldquoWhen we do have political representation we witness voices are weak For instance we have 40 corporators from our communities in Thane city Yet some time ago it was not the corporators but people power that stopped a proposed cluster development project where people from our villages were to be rehabilitated into buildings In this project we some who live in 1000 sq feet homes right now were being given 323 sq feet in the cluster development to be moved into a building Modernization and moving with the times are all very well but who will shift to such a small home even if it means living in a building That is unfair Our corporators remained silent at that time this is also one of the reasons AKEI has been formed to give more muscle to our communities in the political landscaperdquoKolis protest demolition of fish markets like the one at Crawford Market recentlyHousing is a hot button topic for these communities with many living in lsquovillagesrsquo with sprawling homes but with infrastructural problems that dog old dwellings in the city A big sticking point is being tagged along with lsquoslumsrsquo in different proposed projects There are cries for demarcation or having a boundary for original gaothans so that blurred lines several hutments spring up on the periphery of these villages become sharply defined and there is a proper marked physical demarcation between the two which have gone unheededHeritageActivists also form part of AKEI and Neil Pereira from Pali village Bandra claimed ldquoThere have been meetings upon meetings and placatory yes yes yes from representatives to numerous delegations from this community but no movement on any demand One is that certain lsquovillagesrsquo were demanding a heritage tag with lovely old bungalows and homes which need to be preserved They can have Special Development Rules As usual a number of meetings saw conciliatory noises but no actionInstead we witness permissions for highrise buildings around these villages cutting off access roads and even resulting in no sunlight to certain homes on the lower floorsrdquo ldquoWe need answers and action on many of these issues and AKEI we hope will develop into a platform from where we can resolve pending problemsrdquo he finished giving a window into the mood of the moment sons of the soil on the boil