New Delhi - Nearly 20 children who acted in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire were thrown out on Mumbai's streets after city authorities demolished nearly 50 huts in a slum in the Indian city on Thursday, a news report said. Policemen, which supported a team of city administrators, reportedly smacked Azharuddin Ismail Shaikh, the leading child star of the movie, with a stick before telling him to leave the area in Bandra East.
The city took the action because it regards the the slum dwellings illegal.
Shaikh, in the debris of his home, told the IANS news agency that a team of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai came unannounced on Thursday morning and ordered them to move out of the area and demolished the shanties made of billboard banners and plastic sheaths.
"We have nowhere to go. We are just sitting on the road in the blazing sun now. All our belongings and other household goods have either been thrown out or damaged," Azhar, crying inconsolably, told the IANS.
"We do not know what we will eat today," the 10-year-old added.
Municipal official U D Mistry said the authorities had instructions to clear huts near the slums.
"It may have happened that these celebrity children's homes also fell in this category, but we have to follow orders," Mistry said.
The official added that if eligible, the displaced people will be provided alternative accommodation before the monsoon season hits Mumbai by June.
Both Azhar and his co-star Rubina Ali were promised flats by state Chief Minister Ashok Chavan but these were never allotted, Azhar's mother Shamim Begum told local media outlets.
The new accommodation has been delayed due to the code of conduct imposed during the month-long Indian elections which prohibits any activity that is perceived to influence voters.
"If we had a proper house to live in, why would we still live here and suffer?," Begum said adding, "We don't have any other place to live."
