India, Sept. 2 -- The Bombay high court on Monday came down heavily on the BMC for failing to provide ownership housing to sanitary workers for almost 18 years, observing that while its land pool had been severely depleted, its own sanitary workers remained deprived of homes.

"Large tracts of municipal lands have vanished. including those permitted to be encroached by slums and thereafter handed over to private developers to be developed as slum schemes, thereby conferring a bonanza of such municipal gifts to such encroachers and the other beneficiaries. On the other hand, the municipal corporation's own sanitary workers are being deprived of housing for 18 years," the court remarked.

A division bench of Justice G S Kulkarni and Justice...