A public meeting organised by Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) on the issue of redevelopment of koliwada settlements in the city saw the gathering oppose the idea of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) undertaking redevelopment schemes.
At the meeting, Zameen Hak Parishad, said it had received many complaints from slum-dwellers against SRA. These mostly expressed concerns about their livelihood and high-handedness of the part of SRA officials and builders.
The meeting saw representatives from each of the 21 koliwadas in the city speak about issues concerning their areas due to redevelopment projects undertaken by SRA. Govind Akhade from Diva koliwada raised the issue of redevelopment of DK Sandu Marg, Chembur. He said there are a total of 1,200 huts out of which 500-600 were taken under the SRA scheme.
‘Make SRA answerable’
“The people have not been given any answers for questions raised on cross-subsidisation, where developers construct homes for sale in the market as well as tenements to rehouse slum-dwellers free of cost, with the free-sale apartments subsidising the cost of rehabilitating slum-dwellers who are eligible for free rehousing,” Mr. Akhade said. He requested Rekhatai Thakur, chairperson of Zameen Hak Parishad to take some action so that the builders hired by the SRA become answerable to the Koliwada residents.
The Slum Rehabilitation Scheme was launched by the government of Maharashtra introducing an innovative concept of using land as a resource and allowing incentive floor space index (FSI) in the form of tenements for sale in the open market, for cross-subsidization of the slum rehabilitation tenements which are to be provided free to the slum dwellers.
Speakers said for the SRA, redevelopment only meant building a concrete structure. “Our land is our right, this is our nation,” they said, calling for SRA to step away from redeveloping koliwadas.
VBA’s Rajaram Patil said the koliwadas need to be developed in a thoughtful manner. “Buildings should not be constructed just for the sake of it. This is the only place where fishermen can carry out their business and sales,” he said.
According to Mr. Patil, the SRA and builders hired by it had misused lands in the name of poor in Powai, creating massive buildings with flats worth of crores.
