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Mumbai: An amnesty scheme has been prepared by the government for the rehabilitation of 523 slums in Mumbai which had been delayed for so long. This file has been sent to the chief minister for final approval and the decision is expected in a couple of days, Housing minister Jitendra Awhad informed the Legislative Assembly here on Tuesday.
He said this while replying to a starred question of the stalled slum rehabilitation project on the land of Premium Company at Kurla (West) was raised in the Assembly. Raising a supplementary query, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Adv. Ashish Shelar drew the attention of the government to similar stalled rehabilitation projects in Mumbai.
More than 40 per cent of these slum rehabilitation schemes have been stalled, as the builders have been booked under inquiries by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), police or the Economics Offences Wing (EOW). Of these, some builders are in custody. Hence the slum dwellers have nowhere to go. Their original homes have been demolished, the builders have stopped paying them their due rents, and hence these slum dwellers have no guardian left, he added.
Adv Ashish Shelar wanted the government to come up with some concrete plan to ensure that these slum dwellers at least receive their due rents. He further wanted to know as to what efforts have been put in by the government to ensure that these slum dwellers get their rehab homes done.
Replying to further queries, the Housing Minister said that an amnesty scheme has been formulated for these dwellers adding that the scheme will benefit 523 slums in Mumbai. The file has been approved by both the Housing department and the chief secretary and has now been sent to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for his final approval and is expected to be duly signed and approved by him in the next two days, the minister informed.
