State passes law to make pre-2000 slums legal DF Govt Pushes Populist Move, Oppn Muted

Mumbai: With its sights set clearly on the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, the Democratic Front government pushed through the Slum Protection Bill in the state legislature on Friday—the last day of the interim session. The assembly first passed the bill that extends the cut-off date for regularization of slums from 1995 to January 1, 2000. The legislative council approved the bill late in the night. 

    The legislation will benefit more than four lakh hutments in Mumbai where the Congress-NCP, despite having won all the six Lok Sabha seats in 2009, now finds the Sena-BJP combine a potent threat, say political observers. Not only will the makeshift or pucca homes be deemed legal and given civic facilities, their occupants will also be entitled to property transfer rights through sale of residence. 
    Housing minister Sachin Ahir told the upper House that the government would consider hiking FSI for slum redevelopment. The government will also hold a hearing for occupants of slums that have already been developed on the 1995-cut-off basis and who are now eligible for rehabilitation under the new law. 
    The state government also cleared the decks for cluster redevelopment in Thane and redevelopment plans for 22,000 houses in 95 gaothans in Navi Mumbai, both with 4 FSI (the proposals were first reported in TOI on February 22). 
    Friday’s decisions, the DF hopes, will keep the Sena-BJP at bay in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. 
POLITICAL CAPITAL 
For the past four decades, successive governments have been extending the cut-off dates for slums, encouraging squatters on public land 
    Talk of regularizing slums at 1976-level first came up in the early eighties 
    That cut-off was then stretched to 1985 
    In 1995, after the Sena-BJP came to power, it legalised all slums that came up prior to January 1, 1995 
    In 1996, Sena-BJP govt headed by Manohar Joshi, a builder himself, introduced the controversial slum rehabilitation scheme 
    In 2014, DF govt decides to 
extend the cut-off to 2000 Slum Protection Bill won’t amount to contempt of SC, says Chavan 
Mumbai: MLAs belonging to the Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS refrained from bitterly opposing the slum legislation in the assembly on Friday, obviously to avoid alienating a large chunk of voters. They were also muted by the CM pointing out that the saffron government had, when in office in the 1990s, floated a scheme to provide homes to slum dwellers. 
    The CM made little attempt to hide the electoral implications of the populist measures he unveiled in the assembly. “We are fulfilling the promise we made to people,” he said, referring to the protection granted to pre-2000 slums. 
    “We had made the promise in our 2004 and in 2009 manifestos. People liked our decision. They gave us plenty of votes. We were elected to office twice and we will repeat the feat for the third time,” he said, amidst thumping of desks by treasury benches. 
    “The fact of the matter is that people want decent homes and better civic amenities. Our decision to grant protection to pre-2000 slums stems from our eagerness to provide basic amenities —good roads, electricity and healthcare to the urban poor,” he said. 
    Chavan assured the House that the slum protection decision would not amount to showing contempt of the Supreme Court, which has issued guidelines on the issue. “We sought the Attorney General’s opinion on the matter. He told us that the decision will not attract a contempt of court charge against the government if proper measures are initiated to provide infrastructure facilities to citizens,” he said. 
    Chavan cited the Monorail, sea-link, the Metro, Dharavi redevelopment and international airport as proof of the ruling DF’s unflinching commitment to prioritizing infrastructure amenities in the state. 
MIXED REACTIONS 
    Builders will become richer. A lot of 
    free sale area will be generated and this will put pressure on the infrastructure. The government’s decision was expected because it was part of its manifesto. The SRA scheme can never solve the slum problem. Any scheme which is builder-driven is full of predatory tendencies. A person who gets a free house and another who buys it on the same plot cannot co-exist together. Many slum dwellers have sold their free houses. The scheme should cater to slum dwellers and not builders— Housing activist and former Mhada president Chandrashekhar Prabhu 
We welcome it. In fact, there should be no concept of cutoff date. People contributing to the city’s economy should be recognized. These cut-off dates are discriminating. Having said that, this gradual enhancement is completely motivated by short-term political interest. This exposes that the government is not interested in housing poor without discrimination. It’s a political gimmick — Architect P K Das of Nivara Hakk Suraksha Samiti 
It will accelerate slum redevelopment projects. Implementation will be easy for the builder. Many times, on a slum plot, there are some ineligible slum dwellers whose hutments came up after 1995. In such cases, the builder has either to buy them out or initiate eviction proceedings. This leads to complications and political pressure, which stalls the project — A slum redeveloper Sena MLAs tried to disrupt House 
Shiv Sena MLAs from Thane were up in arms in the House earlier in the day as they insisted the government okay cluster redevelopment plan for Thane. Sena MLAs tried to obstruct the proceedings. The CM announced a draft proposal for cluster redevelopment was being finalized. Sena MLAs now made a new demand—it should be applied to MMR too. CM seemed in no hurry to expand its scope. Let’s see how it works in Thane, he said. 
Saffron goes soft 
Mumbai legislators had braced for the discussion on the Slum Protection Bill in the Maharashtra legislative assembly. Senior Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai’s sober speech set the tone for saffron MLAs. Quick to realize the Bill aimed to garner votes, several Sena-BJP MLAs toed a soft line. Gopal Shetty, BJP MLA from Borivli, asked for adequate civic amenities for slum dwellers before monsoon. Pravin Darekar of MNS asked the government to ensure no new slums come up.