Vexed by delays in a slew of projects under the Vision Mumbai plan, the Maharashtra government is likely to skip taking the consent of the 52,000 families eligible for rehabilitation in the Rs 10,000-cr Dharavi redevelopment programme.

Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who also handles the Urban Development department, defended the move on the Dharavi plan, saying his government had already done its best to engage the residents. “We arranged several meetings through MHADA chief Iqbal Singh Chahal,’’ Deshmukh told The Indian Express.

“He met many delegations and local representatives on this issue. Since this is a government project, there is no need for consent. Normally, we need that only for private projects,’’ he said.

The original plan for Asia’s largest shanty town was that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) would issue notices to residents requesting their consent. A 70 per cent vote in favour was required to give the plan the go-ahead. But then on February 4, 2004, this criterion was altered to 60 per cent.

Next, in modifications to the Development Control Regulations proposed last month, the SRA said a provision be added so that slumdwellers who don’t respond within 30 days of receiving the notices be deemed to have consented.

And now, the government is planning to entirely omit the condition for consent by invoking an existing clause of the control regulations, which says that projects undertaken by government agencies on state land would not require the consent of affected slumdwellers.

More than seven years after it was first conceived and three years after the Dharavi Redevelopment Project was pencilled into Vision Mumbai plan, government says it believes this is the only practical solution to fast-track urban development.

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