MHADA to redevelop Mumbai's BDD chawls: Maha CM

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said the Maharashtra Housing Area and Development Authority (MHADA) will redevelop the decades old BDD chawls in the megapolis.
The state government is close to a final decision on the modalities and a final cabinet note will be moved before the state Cabinet by the end of January, Fadnavis said.
Replying to queries, he said that the government had held a competition for the architects and the building models selected have been scrutinised.
"All hurdles in the way of the redevelopment of the BDD chawls have been cleared. BDD chawl residents will be accommodated in the new redevelopment," the Chief Minister added.

"The government has held extensive debate on the contentious issues and a final decision will be taken soon in the state cabinet," he said.
BDD chawls are located in Central Mumbai.

Meanwhile, when asked to comment upon alleged clean chit given to senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former state minister Chhagan Bhujbal by Minister for Cooperation Chandrakant Patil, Fadnavis clarified that no clean chit was given to Bhujbal.
Asked whether he had received any letter from senior Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in this connection, the Chief Minister remarked that he has not received any such letter so far.

Another prominent Maratha leader and BJP MLC Vinayak Mete
said the morchas being taken out by the community across were not against dalit community.
To counter rallies by Marathas, many dalit organisations have begun staging morchas in Nanded and other parts of the state.
Mete clarified the rallies by Marathas are not led by any political party or political leader.
"It would be wrong to say that these morchas are being sponsored by the NCP," he said.
Referring to SC/ST Atrocities Act, the Shiv Sangram organisation leader said dalit icon Babasaheb Ambedkar had guaranteed the right to air one's opinion on any Act if its provisions are hurting someone.

Earlier, Bharipa-Bahujan Mahasangh leader and Ambedkar's grandson Prakash Ambedkar urged his dalit community to exercise restraint and not to carry out parallel counter morchas.
He said "RSS is deliberately trying to mislead dalit community by arguing that the morchas being taken out by the Maratha community are against them."
Hinting that some disgruntled Maratha leaders could be behind organising the rallies, Ambedkar said, "the heat of the government probe into cooperative sector is being felt by some. A handful of 159 families control cooperative sector, whereas others from Maratha community have no toehold in cooperative sector.