The families of Sunanda Shivaji Lade and Pushpa Gaikwad were saved only because they were out attending a marriage. They are put up by their neighbours now. Gaikwad's house, now uninhabitable, remained full of rubble till Sunday, and was finally being cleared by slum children, the youngest sevenyears old, who lugged stones weighing upto 10 kg. Other families in the slum, which falls under the SRD, now fear the same fate, but have no place to turn to. Maya Nagar residents say they are unaware of the ward office's notice. ``It is all very well for the BMC to issue such notices, but where are we to go?'' asked a resident. ``Will the BMC give us an alternative place to stay during the monsoons,'' asked Lade. Echoed Achanak Nagar resident Sachin Shinde, ``Is there any place in the city? And who has the money to buy a new place?''

The landslide, the first in Maya Nagar in 20 monsoons, was the result of constant wetting of the hillside after a transit camp came up on the hill-top . ``The transit camp, built last year to accommodate slum-dwellers under SRD scheme, drains out sewage water into the hillside,'' said Vilas Patel, secretary of the proposed Maya Nagar Housing Society under the SRD. He has requested plot developers Akruti Nirman Pvt Ltd to shift 10 of the hutments to move to a nearby transitcamp.

Last year too, a landslide in Siddharth Nagar in the vicinity claimed two lives. However, most residents said such incidents mostly affected those staying on the hill-top. Prem Nagar resident Anita Pawalekar said mud and slush unfailingly flowed done the slopes every monsoon, clogging the drains and flooding her house. Yet, she and her family of six continue to live there, as they have done for 20 years. Said Sunita Bobate, ``There is no alternative.''

Additional Municipal Commissioner (city) Shreedhar Joshi told Express Newsline: ``As the slum comes under the SRD scheme, it is the developers' duty to provide alternate accommodation for the affected occupant at a transit camp.''

Added Joshi, ``The BMC cannot take responsibility for private, dilapidated and dangerous buildings, nor do we have the capacity to provide accommodation during monsoons to residents of such buildings.'' He admitted that before the rains, the BMC only issues notices to occupants of such buildings and to slumdwellers whosehutments located on hillocks are in danger of being wiped away in landslides to make arrangements for an alternative accommodation. He added that the BMC has hired a transit camp comprising 60 tenements for monsoon-affected structures from MHADA at Ghatkopar.