Mumbai slums | Not much to dwell on

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 redevelopshyment schemes at Rs 25 lakh to residents of shanties that have come up between 2000 and 2011 It is estimated that this will cover around 16-18 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 projectsIn 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 25 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 25 lakhThe state cabinet has also approved a decision to reduce the lock-in period for the sale of free SRA rehabilitation tenements from 10 to seven years a bill is expected to be tabled in the legislature soon This means that individuals who have been given flats free of cost can sell them after seven years SRA officials admit that despite the lock-in period beneficiaries continued to sell flats or clandestinely create third-party rights In 2021 a survey of 86429 tenements by the SRA found that 10983 were occupied by unauthorised entities The state government has also approved in principle a policy of covering residents on the first floor of chawls located in slums under SRA schemesAt present only those on the ground floor are eligible for rehabilitation Officials say this policy will apply to around 2000 chawls built before January 1 1976 housing an estimated 18000 residents largely in Mumbairsquos western and eastern suburbs such as Malad Kanjurmarg Ghatkopar and Bhandup ldquoSince these first-floor residents were not covered under SRA norms thousands were rendered homelessrdquo says Gopal Shetty the BJP MP from North Mumbai who had taken up the issue with the government ldquoBuilders paid them modest amounts like Rs 10 lakh and they would shift to far-off places like Vasai Virar and NalasoparardquoThe state housing department is also working on a policy to allow government agencies like the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority MHADA or the City and Industrial Development Corporation CIDCO launch or complete work on stalled SRA projects where private developers have shown little interestA Legacy Issuenbsp nbsp nbsp nbspnbspnbspnbsp nbsp nbspBombayrsquos slums are as old as modern-day Mumbai They began sprouting since the beginning of the 20th century with the arrival of thousands of economic migrants from across Maharashyshtra and India Gradually informal settlements like Dharavi or the Matunga labour camp took the shape of todayrsquos slums The city has 2583 slum clusters with around 12 million structures Today of Mumbairsquos 34000-acre approximate area around 83335 acres or 24 per cent is covered by slums An estimated 484 per cent of Mumbairsquos 124 million population as per the 2011 census lives in these densely-populated areas Importantly slum-dwellers are enthusiastic votersnbsp nbsp nbsp nbspnbspnbspnbsp nbsp nbspTill the rsquo70s slums were considered illegal and many were demolishyshed In 1971 the Maharashtra Slum Areas Improvement Clearance and Redevelopment Act was passed and basic amenities like sanitation and water were provided In the rsquo90s a committee under senior IAS officer Dinesh Afzalpurkar recommended the use of land as a resource to tackle the problem of burgeoning slums The government accepted it in 1995 and the SRA was created Under its schemes builders can redeveshylop slums into tenement buildings to house slum-dwellers In return they can develop part of the land for sale in the market Over the years the size of rehabilitation tenements grew from 180 sq ft to 225 sq ft 269 sq ft and now 300 sq ft the cut-off date for legalised slums has been pushed back from 1995 to 2000 Some 253421 tenements constructed under SRA projects have been given occupation certificashytes by July end However officials say that the goal of a slum-free Mumshybai with residents being housed in highrises is a long way offA senior SRA official says that around 380 slum rehabilitation schemes have been stuck for years due to lack of clearance from the Union defence and environment forests and climate change ministries the Civil Aviation Authority and due to legal financial issues Work on 517 schemes approved since 2008-09 is yet to begin To kickstart stalled proshyshyshyjects the SRA has empaneled aroshyund 30 developers who will bid for tenders floated by the authority In another option financial institutions that have invested in stalled SRA projects will be empaneled and can appoint a new developer to complete work So far of the 380 pending projects 161 have been revived ldquoWe are working to give an impetus to stalled projects and ensure they are implemented efficientlyrdquo says Satish Lokhande chief executive officer SRAIn around 150 SRA schemes developers have defaulted on paying around Rs 602 crore as rent to slum-dwellers who are in transit accommodation while their houses are being redeveloped In August the SRA issued a circular mandating that developers must pay two years039 rent in advance and submit post-dated cheques for another yearldquoSeveral SRA projects have been languishing for 10-15 yearsrdquo says Krishna Hegde deputy leader and spokesperson of the Shinde-led Sena ldquoResidents evicted are yet to get houses and are living in dilapidated transit accommodationthe government is looking into the matterrdquonbsp nbsp nbsp nbspnbspnbspnbsp nbsp nbsplsquoPro-builder schemersquoCritics point to how the SRA scheme instead of catalysing urban renewal is heavily tilted in favour of private builders ldquoIt is a pro-builder schemerdquo alleges Ramesh Prabhu chairman Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association ldquoBuilders are also responsible for creating slumsacirc128aeligbuilders developers politicians babus have become richer in the name of the poorrdquo He points to how successive governments increased the size of SRA tenements and hiked cut-off years for legalising slums which served to encourage people to create new slums and nurture vote banksSitaram Shelar co-convenor Hamara Shaher Mumbai Abhiyan agrees ldquoThe land belongs to the government which bears the cost but it is the builder who benefits The utilisation of land is more towards the resale component at aroshyund 60-65 per cent with residents houshyshysed in the rest This ensures that SRA tenements are a vertical version of slums with no gardens open spaces or facilities that slum-dwellers can accessrdquo he explainsShelar complains about the faulty attitude of policymakers towards slums ldquoSlums are not a problemrdquo he says rdquobut a source of energy for the city They provide labour to itrdquo As a remedy Shelar proposes that the size of flats for slum-dwellers be hiked to 350 sq ft and an increase in the share of housing be given to governshyment agencies such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority MMRDA to put up those uprooted by Mumbairsquos infrastructure projects Former minishyster Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress says that SRA schemes must be pro-shyshypeople not pro-builder ldquoDecisions should not be taken from the comfort of air-conditioned cabins but must take ground realities into accountrdquo she stressesVarun Singh founder Square Feet India a real estate news website says that the government must ensshyshyure that slum-dwellers do not get multiple houses ldquoNow an individual may take multiple benefits under SRA projects some sell off their rehabilitation tenements and move elsewhere These leakages must be plugged but no government wants to bite the bullet as the slum-dwellers are a powerful vote bankrdquo he saysPublished By Shyam BalasubramanianPublished On Sep 29 2023Must Watch

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Mumbai slums | 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

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