The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) plans to scrap the housing quota for some categories,such as freedom fighters and war veterans,and reserve those houses for minorities - a move that might turn out to be a political ploy ahead of the civic polls in Mumbai, The move comes two weeks after NCP chief Sharad Pawar,while speaking at a party meeting,had asked Minister of State for Housing Sachin Ahir to explore the possibility of providing reservation for minorities in housing projects. At present we have 49 per cent reservation for various categories like scheduled castes,scheduled tribes,freedom fighters,handicapped,war veterans families,ex-servicemen,state government employees,central government employees,etc, Ahir told The Indian Express on Wednesday. We need to provide reservation for minorities to bring them into the mainstream. My department has already prepared a proposal that will be discussed with the Chief Minister soon. He said officials are reviewing the response from various reserved categories to housing projects in the past five years,to find out whether the quota for a particular category should be discontinued. Among the categories for which the need for reservation is being examined,he said,are those of freedom fighters and families of veterans of the 1962,1965 and 1971 wars. He explained there is no possibility of fresh beneficiaries approaching MHADA for houses under these categories. The reservation for freedom fighters and war veterans is one per cent each,so the quota being worked out for minorities is likely to be two per cent. Ahir said they are also examining the need to continue the quota for some other categories. Let me make it clear that the quota for minorities does not mean it is for Muslims alone, Ahir said. Whenever we speak about minorities,people think we are talking about Muslims only. But,there are other minorities like Christians,Jains,Buddhists,Parsis and Sikhs. The idea is to break the existing ghettoes of communities and ensure that they live together in MHADA buildings. He said the maximum limit for reservation was 49 per cent and the government would not cross it as adequate houses need to be provided under the open category. MHADA in MIDCThe MHADA plans housing complexes on new complexes of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in the state. Ahir said 24 new MIDC projects are coming up in the state and 50 to 100 acres would be reserved for MHADA housing projects.
