New legislation to curb spread of slums

New legislation to curb spread of slums
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, July 17: Housing Minister Rohidas Patil today said stringent provisions will be drawn up to check the growth of slums in Mumbai in the proposed legislation to be introduced in the ongoing session of the state Legislature.

The provisions, he said, include suspension of officers of the BMC, MHADA, Police Department and other agencies if new shanties are erected on property under their jurisdiction and relevant authorities will be empowered to immediately demolish these structures if they fail to produce photopasses. A provision for such passes will be made in the proposed legislation, Patil said while replying an Opposition-sponsored debate on the landslide at Ghatkopar, which took the lives of 71 slum-dwellers last week.

As many as 93 slum colonies in Mumbai are vulnerable to landslides, he pointed out, adding that the government will shift them to alternative sites.

``The blame for the deaths at Ghatkopar cannot be placed on a single indiviual or body. It was a joint responsibility of the civic body as well as the state government and its agencies to prevent the slums at such places,'' he said. The slum-dwellers have been shifted to transit camps and will be rehabilitated soon, he told the House.

Earlier, initiating the debate under rule 101, Opposition Leader Narayan Rane squarely blamed the government for the delay in relief operations at the site and demanded immediate action against officers responsible for it.

The slums were not removed by the government though the BMC had issued a warning about the landslide before the monsoon, he pointed out. He added that the weather bureau had warned of heavy rains on July 12. Further, no efforts were made to rescue the slumdwellers trapped under the debries, he charged. ``The apathy of the administration can be gauged from the fact that the suburban district collector visited the place six hours after the incident occured,'' he said.

The government's crisis management system had turned out to be a total failure, he charged and demanded action against errant officers.

Suresh Shetty (Congress) and Sardar Tara Singh (BJP) susepcted irregularities in the cleaning of storm-water drains by the BMC. ``The city virtually gets submerged even as the BMC spends about Rs 12 crore every year on storm-water drains,'' Singh said.

Housing Minister Patil also said that the number of the slum-dwellers is likely to reach 55 lakh after the ongoing census of slums in Mumbai is completed. The government needed about Rs 20,000 crore for rehabilitation of slum-dwellers and Rs 65,000 crore for reconstruction of dilapidated cessed buildings in the city, he said. At a recent meeting with the chief minister, the Union urban development minister had agreed to give 50 per cent of the salt land in Mumbai for rehabilitation of slum-dwellers, he disclosed. Extra Floor Space Index (FSI) will be offered to make the present slum rehabilitation scheme viable. Further, to attract developers for the reconstruction of 1,700 cessed buildings, the government will offer additional FSI, he said.

Patil also announced that the slum rehabilitation scheme will be implemented in all major cities of the state.