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CONFUSION REIGNS
Activists seek concrete date for slum rehab plan....TIMES NEWS NETWORK Mumbai: Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s recent announcement on not extending the cut-off date for slums beyond 2000 is yet another twist in the slum regularisation deadline saga, say rights groups. Several deadlines are currently in force and there is no concrete policy, they point out.
Following a recent debate in the legislative Assembly on the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and other mass housing schemes in Mumbai, Deshmukh had said the cutoff date for slums to be recognised as legal would be extended till 2000, but could not be further stretched under any circumstances. On paper, however, the cutoff date is still January 1, 1995. “We went to the high court to get the date extended till 2000 but the HC did not pass an order in our favour. The case is still pending in the Supreme Court and various schemes are being given 2000 as the cutoff date with the SC’s permission on a case-by-case basis,’’ Deshmukh said. The decision to extend the deadline till 2000 was taken following widespread protests and the censure of the Congress high command after Deshmukh embarked on a demolition drive that left 90,000 families homeless in December 2004 and January 2005. Despite the state government’s promise of rehabilitation, there was little progress in the last three years. According to sources in the collector’s office, the government conducted a survey of eligible slumdwellers among those dishoused and promised to give each a small plot of land to build a room at Mandala in Mankhurd (eastern suburbs) or Ambujwadi (western suburbs). However, following massive irregularities, a fresh survey was started but never completed. Less than 450 plots have been allotted till date. For most of the major infrastructure projects being undertaken by the government now, including the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project (MUIP), the Mithi River Development Project (MRDP) and the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP), the cutoff date is 2000. For the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP), the terms of the rehabilitation policy define an eligible person as one who was present at the project-affected site on the date of the basic socio-economic survey. In most areas, the survey was carried out in 2004, leading to a growing clamour for the deadline to be extended till 2004 for all projects. “The national policy on housing and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) do not speak of any deadlines. The state is actually going against the central policy by implementing a deadline of its own in schemes for which the Centre gives funds,’’ said Simpreet Singh of the National Alliance of People’s Movements. States such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have no such deadlines, said Singh, adding that the Maharashtra government continued to turn its back on its core responsibility of providing affordable housing. In fact, the Madhya Pradesh government recently took a decision to award land pattas to all slumdwellers staying there from before December 31, 2007, he added. |
