Congress leader Milind Deora has written to party chief Sonia Gandhi expressing concern over Rahul Gandhi’s 2019 poll promise of allotting 500 sq.ft. homes to Mumbai slum dwellers not moving “effectively” towards implementation under the new dispensation in the State.
Mr. Deora urged Ms. Gandhi to establish a mechanism in the State, which is being ruled by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of the Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress, to ensure that the government delivers on the promises made by the Congress to the people.
In his letter, dated January 24, Mr. Deora said that upon his advice in March 2019, then Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said at a rally that 500 sq.ft. homes under slum and dilapidated building rehabilitation schemes will be allotted, if his party is voted to power. “This promise was later included in the common minimum programme worked out by the three parties,” Mr. Deora said. At present, 269 sq.ft. houses are provided under the slum redevelopment projects in the city.
To drive home his point, Mr. Deora recalled former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi supporting efforts initiated by his late father Murli Deora to give affordable housing to the needy in Mumbai since 1984. “Voters of Mumbai have since trusted the Congress and rewarded it for its commitment towards uplifting those at the bottom of the pyramid,” he said.
“Rahul ji ’s promise was made to Mumbaikars when he was Congress president. It concerns me that such an important policy initiative has still not moved effectively towards implementation,” Mr. Deora said. The former Mumbai Congress president said that various other “realistic and feasible” promises too were made to people during the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in 2019.
“I therefore request you to consider establishing an effective mechanism in Maharashtra, similar to the one in (other) Congress-governed States, so that the government may speedily deliver on the poll promises made by Congress to the voters of Maharashtra,” he said.
Mr. Deora also said the party’s allies, Sena and NCP, had worked to implement all their poll promises in the past 50 days.
