More slums to come under rehabilitation programme

Government's decision to extend cut-off date to benefit 20,000 families.

The state government has removed last hurdle in modernisation programme of Mumbai's international airport by extending the cut-off date for rehabilitation of slums to January 1, 2000 from earlier cut off date of January 1, 1995. This decision is expected to benefit around 20,000 slumdwelling families.

The Congress, BJP and other political parties were opposing the state government's rehabilitation package for slum-dwellers who have encroached upon the airport land.

Their main demand was that, for other civic infrastructure projects state government has accepted to rehabilitate the slum-dwellers up to January 1, 2000 but in the case of airport project they are sticking to January 1, 1995 as cut off date.

In one public interest litigation, state government had filed the affidavit before Bombay High Court saying that, it will stick to cut off date of 1995 announced by it earlier for rehabilitation of slum dwellers, which had tied the state government¿s hand.

However, Supreme Court recently ruled that, state government should have autonomy to decide what should be cut off date for rehabilitation.

Following which chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who also holds housing portfolio, signed the orders on Thursday, which extended the cut-off date for rehabilitation for airport project up till January 1, 2000.

According to sources in the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) the state government agency, which will be carrying out rehabilitation of slum-dwellers told, nearly 275 acres of land of the airport is occupied by the nearly 80,000 hutments.

The latest state government decision is likely to benefit 20,000 odd families, who would have got excluded because of January 1, 1995 deadline.

Survey to determine eligible families under the rehabilitation package is presently going on and it is expected that, it will be completed over next three months. And afterwards it will take another two to two and half years to rehabilitate all these families, sources added.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Parag Alvani said, "we welcome the state government's decision but state government is still keeping mum about our one more important demand that is about, either state government should rehabilitate these slum-dwellers where they are presently living or in the nearby areas. In fact we have suggested six sites where various government agencies have land, which can be utilised for rehabilitation purpose".

On this issue still state government, civil aviation ministry and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) are all talking in different voices and they want to send slum-dwellers to far-off localities like Mankhurd, Dhaisar, etc, he charged.

Unlike middle class who can't afford to travel to place of their work from far-off places with their limited incomes, normally slum-dwellers have a job in four to five kilometers periphery from their home and it will be inhumane to deprive them from their livelihood from sending them to far-off places, Alvani pointed out.