Chavan on poll drive: Housing next on agenda

Mumbai: Long criticised for inaction and accused of sitting on real-estate files, Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan is finally waking up. On the anvil is a major push for big-ticket housing schemes for Mumbai. Leading the list will be amendments to the cluster development scheme, and affordable and inclusive housing. These are Chavan's pet schemes as they are the vehicles through which his government plans to meet its five-year target of 5 lakh houses. Housing minister Sachin Ahir confirmed that a decision will be taken soon. "The CM has called a meeting on Monday, in which he may make some final announcements. The state urban development department has already approved these policies and tabled before the CM," Ahir said. Chavan's move, though, is not without its political significance. Ahead of the assembly elections, he has already cleared reservation for Marathas. Housing is the next big thing. Though housing policy files have been pending with the chief minister, issues like whether MMRDA (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) or MHADA (Maharashtra Housing & Area Development Authority) should keep the stocks have been delaying enforcement. "Since the size of houses under inclusive policy will be small, with a carpet area of 380-500 sq ft, and will be affordable to the common man, they are likely to be exclusively dealt with MHADA, even though it's MMRDA's baby" At present, developers are not constructing small houses in the city, Ahir said. Vimal Shah, president of Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI), told dna on Sunday it's high time these policies were cleared. "There are many projects which are languishing for want of development-friendly policies. The city doesn't have enough open spaces for construction. On the other hand, the city's population is increasing day-by-day. Redevelopment is the only solution," he suggested. Once these policies are approved, there will be a constant flow of housing projects, he said. "We had planned a rented housing scheme for the weaker section earlier. But people were not interested to stay in rented houses and preferred ownership rights. Therefore, we renamed it as inclusive housing scheme. We will give additional floor space index (FSI) to developers in lieu of constructed houses. It's a win-win situation for the government and the developers," said a senior official from the state housing board. He said this scheme will be shared by MHADA and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). "MHADA can sell these houses through the lottery scheme. The BMC can use them for rehabilitation of project affected peoples (PAPs) and transits," he said.

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Centre of gravity shifting from metros to suburbs





Honey, they've shrunk the city. Recently released census data shows between 2001 and 2011, population in Mumbai, Kolkata and two inner districts of Delhi declined, while in Hyderabad and Chennai only a small increase took place. But surrounding areas of the cities showed phenomenal growth indicating a shifting centre of gravity in metropolises.

Declining populations in some metros is notable though unsurprising. These cities are unable to absorb migration due to high cost of living, explains R B Bhagat, head of migration and urban studies at Mumbai's International Institute for Population Sciences.

"These districts also have the lowest fertility -much lower than two children per woman. Slum relocation/squatter clearances may have contributed," he told TOI.

Mumbai city district, which extends from Colaba to Mahim and Sion, saw a population dip of about 8% in 2001-11.
The adjacent Mumbai Suburban district grew at a sedate 8% in the same period. But Thane grew at 36% and Raigarh district by 19%.

Two of Delhi's nine districts showed a fall in population in the same period -New Delhi and Central Delhi. But all other districts showed increases, with some like SouthWest up by 31%. Population of four adjacent districts -Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana and Ghaziabad and Noida in UP -have exploded. Gurgaon leads the pack with a jaw-dropping in crease of 73% in a decade, while Noida grew at about 50% and Ghaziabad at 41%.

Kolkata, too, has a similar story with the city district's population dipping by about 2% while population in the surrounding North and South 24Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah districts have all increased by 10 to nearly 20%. Chennai grew by about 7% but the adjacent Thiruvallur district grew by 35% and Kancheepuram by nearly 40%. Overall, 21 districts in the country have shown an absolute decline in population.

Six are in Nagaland, the only state in the country where population declined between 2001 and 2011. Lack of employment opportunities is the prime reason why people are moving out -from remote areas to urban centres, and then out of the state altogether. Other districts which show a similar trend are mountainous districts like La haul & Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, Almora and Garhwal in Uttarakhand, and the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu. Three hilly districts abutting the Konkan coast — Chickmaglur in Karnataka and Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, too, show a population decline.

Hyderabad showed a tiny increase in population of about 3% in a decade. But the surrounding Ranga Reddy district's population spurted by a phenomenal 48%. Pune and Bangalore seem to be exceptions to this trend. Pune grew by over 30% and Bangalore by over 47% between 2001 and 2011, reflecting their new IT hub status perhaps.

The adjacent districts do not show an exceptional increase, because both these cities had enough space to absorb the growing population. But this may change in the coming years as saturation takes place. According to Bhagat, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts have been traditionally out-migration districts and people from there are moving to both Pune and Thane.





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Metro wins over office-goers with speed & comforts





Commuters Say They Will Switch Permanently To New Ride In Town

The Mumbai Metro appears set to become one of the mainstays of the city's transporta

tion complex, a distinction that the suburban rail network has held for decades but the Monorail could not achieve.
An estimated 3 lakh commuters used the Metro on Monday , its second day of operation.
Among them were joyriders, but the bulk consisted of office-goers, many of whom, pleased by their comfortable commute, decided not to return to their old modes of transport.

an IT professional whose office is in Chakala. "Every day , I used to either take a bus or an auto from Vikhroli to Andheri. Now, I can go to Ghatkopar station, take the Metro and reach my destination in less than 15 minutes. This is amazing."

Similar delight was expressed by others. Vaibhav Yadav, a 25-year-old film editor who travels regularly from Ghatkopar to Andheri, said till last week he went to Dadar by train, crossed over to Western Railway and caught another crowded train for Andheri.
"The worst part was waiting at Andheri station for a bus to Lokhandwala Complex." On Monday , Yadav saved more than an hour as he reached D N

According to the Mumbai Metro One Private Ltd (MMOPL), about 2.2 lakh passengers used the Metro by 7pm on Monday . Extrapolating from the figure, the service operator estimated that the ridership at day's end is likely to be around 3 lakh. On Sunday , about 2.4 lakh passengers had tried the service, which, according to the MMOPL, was the highest first-day ridership of all metro projects in India.

An MMOPL official said, "Although many joyriders came on Monday , the bigger share was commuters who had switched over from road transport." He added that 40,000 smart cards were sold on Day 2, indicating that the Metro is already building a base of regular commuters. "The response is encouraging. We are confident of meeting our targets."

The system is designed to handle 7 lakh commuters a day .

Many passengers heaped rich praises on the comfort of Metro travel. "This is the best and fastest way to move between eastern and western suburbs," said Ajit Panigrahi,

Nagar in under 20 minutes and took an auto to Lokhandwala.
"This is the cheapest mode of travel. And given the city's sultry weather, the air-conditioned journey is a real boon for Mumbaikars," Yadav said.

Ravi Singh, who commutes daily from Andheri station to his office in J B Nagar, said he will now forsake his usual BEST route number 340. "The bus goes under the Metro and uses the same route from Andheri to Ghatkopar. Since the Metro is faster and cheaper, I will prefer that," he said.

Samrat Teli (33) described the Metro as "the smartest way to travel".
"It will be very popular among young officegoers. If you want to save time, this is the best alternative. Also, it is a pleasant experience to travel in these new coaches." Teli, who goes from Badlapur to Andheri for work, said the large stations, escalators and the staff left a positive impression on him.





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Green nods go online with time limits





The government on Thursday kicked off online environment clearances for industrial and infrastructure projects which have for long been hobbled by the slow pace of green approvals.

As part of the transition to an e-window mechanism, for the next three weeks, project developers will be required to submit a hard copy of the application besides filing it online. From July 1, the system will be fully online, environment and forests minister Prakash Javadekar said.

There will be a time limit for the entire approval process, with stage-wise timelines.

"Efforts will be made to bring down the timelines for each stage," he said.

The e-clearance mechanism is the first in a series of online approvals that the government proposes to put in place. In the next stage, forest clearances will be made online and work has begun to give mining-related approvals also through the same route.

The environment ministry had initially planned to have a common platform for state and the Centre for green clearances. The online mechanism will now deal with approvals given by the Union ministry and its related offices. The government has not launched the system of "deemed approval" either, which will mean that a clearance will be granted if no objection is raised within the stipulated timeframe. This is expected to be in place in the coming months.

The Centre is looking to work with the states to ensure that the process at their end is completed on time so that the environment ministry can grant clearance within a maximum of 60 days, an official said.

There will also be a penalty provision if a delay at any stage remains unexplained. Though this provision is yet to be codified, the ministry appears firm on introducing this clause as early as possible. The move will not just remove physical interface but also enable the government to track an application more effectively and identify "tables" on which proposals are held up. For the past few years, the environment ministry has come to be seen as the biggest stumbling block in project approvals and has been criticized for delays in power, port, road and other projects.

"This step is a beginning of transparency in governance and better functioning of the ministry. One need not visit the office but submit their proposals online," said Javadekar, while addressing an event to celebrate World Environment Day .

The new system, which monitors stage-wise approval and compliance mechanism, will ensure security of information while simultaneously maintaining transparency in dealings between the ministry and the applicant. An applicant, under the online system, will be able to monitor stage-wise process of their application. After basic verification, a password will be generated in four days time and the applicant can check the progress online.

Sensing that only the change of system is not enough to realize the twin objects of growth and environmental protection, the minister wants to see a change in mindset of his `babus' and ropes in the motivational trainer and author Shiv Khera to lecture them during a half-day leadership motivation conference on Friday .





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State files review petition against SC forest land nod





Wants To Protect Green Cover But Residents Upset

In a move that may spell trouble for more than 3 lakh people who bought property on land deemed private forest, the government has filed a review petition against a Supreme Court order that allows residents to live there. But those residing there are upset with the state's decision, maintaining that there was nothing illegal about the properties in the green belt.

The revenue and forest department has moved the apex court, asking it to review the removal of "private forest" tag to swatches of land across the state, including Mulund, Bhandup, Borivli, Kanidvli, Thane, Virar, Badlapur and Ambernath.
"The forest cover is much less than the national average. Allowing regularization of constructions on forest land will lead to further depletion of the green cover. The department also feels that owing to ambiguity in forest rules, the law has not been interpreted properly . So the state has filed a review petition," a senior forest department official in Thane said. The review petition was filed in April. "The subject will come up for hearing only after court reopens following vacation."

The SC last year set aside a 2008 Bombay high court judgment that had declared houses built on plots deemed private forest land in Mumbai and Thane as illegal. The apex court said the administration could not demolish constructions on the green belt by declaring them "private forest" and issuing notice under section 35 (3) of the Indian Forest Act, 1927. The properties were to be regularized.

The state's recent effort to review the SC order has not gone down well with residents. "The government collects taxes from residents. This shows that there is no illegality. Despite knowing that it is wrong, the state has gone ahead and filed a review pet ition. This is nothing but harassment by the bureaucracy ," said Thane resident Pandharinath Samant. "What were revenue and forest officials doing when the urban development department and the civic bodies gave permissions and clearances to developers for building and registering the houses?" Now with the filing of the review petition, the process of regularizing the houses has also been put on hold. "The status quo on the issue continues as the DF government awaits Supreme Court's verdict on the review petition," the official said.

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END OF STOREY Chavan now offers Campa residents hope





Fresh Petition Comes Up For Hearing In SC

Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan offered Campa Cola's residents hope as they braced themselves and placed their faith in the Supreme Court, where their fresh plea to protect nearly 100 flats from demolition is up for hearing on Tuesday .

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday mulled over whether to ask the SC to start contempt proceedings against the residents, besides directing them to move out.

Chavan, at a cabinet meeting on Monday , directed the chief secretary and law secretary to see if the state could intervene. Deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, minorities minister Naseem Khan, minister of state for housing & slum development Sachin Ahir and others sought the state's "immediate intervention". Khan and Ahir said that even the SC had told the state and BMC to suggest ways to resolve the row, and the state must not miss the opportunity .

Pawar raised the issue after legislative council members, including opposition leader Vinod Tawde and Ashish Shelar, suggested that the state intervene. The BMC had told occupants of the illegal flats to hand over their keys by June 2. Shelar suggested that new attorney general Mukul Rohatgi's help be taken. Rohatgi was the residents' counsel in the SC before his appointment as AG in the new BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

Political observers said the state's suddenly proactive stand appeared to stem from the rout of the Congress and NCP in the Lok Sabha election, with an eye on the state as sembly election.

Campa's residents spent Monday in meetings and completing paper work with their new lawyer, Himanshu Shekhar. Their main plea was to buy time till the regular bench of the SC can hear their plea on merit again, with facts not presented in court so far. The SC had set a May 31 deadline for the residents to vacate.

The BMC had given them time till June 2 but had not received a single key till 5pm on Monday . It plans to approach the apex court within two days to seek their eviction. It has a report ready on steps it took to demolish the illegal floors and the fight put up by Campa residents to extend the deadline.

"The court has always been sympathetic to the residents. We will tell the court that despite it giving them an extension to vacate twice, they have not done so," a senior civic official said.

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