NOT MUCH TO DWELL ON

WITH AN EYE ON THE POLLS, THE MAHARASHTRA GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES SEVERAL STEPS FOR THOSE COVERED UNDER MUMBAI'S SLUM REDEVELOPMENT PROJECTS. BUT STALLED PROJECTS AND AN ALLEGED PRO-BUILDER BIAS ARE UNDOING ANY GOOD INTENT

- Dhaval Kulkarni

34,000 ACRES Total area of Mumbai

8,333.5 ACRES Area covered by slums

48.4 PER CENT of Mumbai's 10.2 million population lives in slums

WITH THE LOK SABHA AND STATE ASSEMBLY polls in 2024 drawing near, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in Maharashtra is going all-out to woo the powerful slum-dweller vote bank in Mumbai. The state government has decided to allot apartments in slum redevelopment schemes at Rs 2.5 lakh to residents of shanties that have come up between 2000 and 2011. It is estimated that this will cover around 1.6-1.8 million people as their slums are redeveloped in the coming years. Slum-dwellers whose houses were constructed before 2000 are legally protected and eligible for free housing. Many are housed in 300 square feet flats under Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) projects.

In 2018, the BJP-Sena coalition under Devendra Fadnavis decided to rehabilitate and grant houses to residents of shanties built between January 1, 2000 and January 1, 2011 at an appropriate cost. In May 2023, a government resolution was issued, fixing the price of a tenement at Rs 2.5 lakh. Sources from the Maharashtra state housing department say that, initially, the plan was to charge residents on the basis of the cost of construction. But since this would work out to Rs 8 lakh-Rs 12 lakh for a 300 sq. ft house in a highrise, it was fixed at Rs 2.5 lakh.