‘Review Centre’s slum policy’
To ensure speedy implementation of infrastructural projects in the state, the Maharashtra government wants the Centre to adopt special measures and introduce, amend schemes.
The Maharashtra government has planned a special presentation for Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, during his stay at the Governor House on Friday to highlight pertinent issues related to Mumbai’s infrastructural projects.
According to the state government, 25 per cent land in Mumbai belongs to the Centre. Various bodies, including the Railways, Port Trust, Airport Authority of India and PSUs like Richardson Crudas, etc, own large tracts of lands. In many places, these plots of land are encroached upon by slums.
The state will request the Centre to address the encroachment issue, as it is proving to be a major hurdle for the state urban development department, the housing department and other related departments, in carrying out development projects.
The various state departments will prepare a presentation charting out the issues and the probable solutions, which could help faster and better infrastructure development in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
According to officials, the state has planned to regularise slums and rehabilitate slumdwellers, who have been living in hutments before January 1, 1995. As far as encroachments on land belonging to the state is concerned, the state has come up with rehabilitation schemes through the Slum Rehabilitation Authority. “However, it’s difficult to remove slums on land belonging to the Central government…In such a situation there is unequal implementation of the state’s policy,” said the official.
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