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Ministers, opposition leaders involved in slum scam: says Activist Medha Patkar Sandeep Ashar Alleging that politicians from both the ruling Democratic Front government in the state and the Opposition were involved in the multi-crore scams in the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), alleged activist Medha Patkar on Monday. Patkar demanded that a thorough probe be taken up on all the 90 complaints received by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on discrepancies in slum rehabilitation, failing which Patkar has threatened to launch an indefinite agitation. Speaking at a conference on corruption in the SRA and Special Economic Zone (SEZ), Patkar compared the magnitude of corruption in SRA to the multi-crore Bofors scam. “All the three cases busted so far by the ACB weigh to the tune of crores,” she said. Accompanied by National Alliance for People’s Movement (NAPM) activist Simpreet Singh, Patkar cited cases of SRA schemes at Parel’s Sewree, Worli, Kandivali’s Bhabrekar Nagar and Juhu’s Gilbert Hill Road where there has been an obvious violation of the rights of affected slum dwellers. “In these cases, despite tabling evidences of malpractices by the developer, the police, SRA authorities and collector’s officials has done nothing. Instead, many false cases have been filed against people who raise their voice. Police officials colluded with developers,” she alleged. Corruption in SRA has been in the news ever since the three cases were busted where the developers were handed the letter of intent and annexure (approval) by the SRA. But, a plea moved by the ACB to set up a Special Investigative Team for the cases, which they termed as a ‘criminal misconduct by the builders in collusion with government officials’ was negated by the home department in December last. “This indicated the reach of the builder cartel. Why probe only ten cases, when every cases is worth crores,” said Patkar.
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