LAWS 2 LAST(BES21)

Even the ‘foot-passengers’ needed to have special Even the ‘foot-passengers’ needed to have specialsanction from the Government to walk, use bridges or hillroads and had to pay a toll of three paisas in some areas. Theproceeds of the levy would go to construction, repair andmaintenance of roads and bridges within the Presidency ofBombay. In 1912, The Bombay Smoke Nuisances Act’ was introduced.There was also a Maharashtra (Bombay area) Smoke NuisancesCommission to regulate and take action against illegalalterations in furnaces. ‘The Maharashtra Disqualification of Aliens Act, 1918’,another colonial-era piece of legislation, debarred ‘aliens'(those who were not citizens of India or represented a foreignfirm) from voting at elections of certain local bodies in thePresidency of Bombay. ‘The Maharashtra Refugees Act, 1948’ was meant toregulate registration of refugees coming from West Pakistanduring the Partition. Most of these refugees settled inMumbai, Ulhasnagar and Jalgaon, among other places. The law made it incumbent on the head of the family toregister names of family members at the registration centrewithin seven days of arrival in the state. The law dealing with stray cattle nuisance on roads isperhaps not irrelevant even today! ‘The Cattle-Trespass(Bombay Amendment) Act’ of 1931 required that owner accept theownership of the cattle and pay prescribed security. If theseizure of the cattle was held to be legal upon inquiry, thesecurity money was forfeited and owner lost ownership of thecattle too. ‘The Indian Lunacy, Bombay District Municipal and BombayMunicipal Boroughs (Amendment) Act, 1936’ provided for a localauthority for recovery of the cost of the maintenance of thelunatics. ‘The Shore Nuisance (Bombay and Kolaba) Act, 1853’empowered the District Collector to remove "Nuisances" likeencroachments from the shores of the islands which made upMumbai town. The purpose was to keep the internal waterways ofMumbai free of encroachment; now these waterways havedisappeared. PTI MM KRKRGSDM