Regularisation of slums â€” a ploy to fool slum voters?

MUMBAI: The state government's decision to extend the cut-off date to protect shanties (from 1995 to 2000) is a cynical ploy to fool slum voters and perpetrate a scam that has largely favoured private developers.

The problem of housing has assumed alarming proportions in Mumbai. While on the one hand slums are rapidly proliferating, on the other old buildings are being pulled down by builders to put up skyscrapers. More than half the population of the city live in slums, while the middle class struggles to find a decent roof over its head. The ruling Congress-NCP alliance as well as the opposition BJP-Sena combine is responsible for this appalling situation.

For the past four decades, successive governments have been shamelessly extending the cut-off dates for slums, thereby encouraging encroachers to squat on public land. The first cut-off was in 1976, which was then stretched to 1985. When the Sena-BJP came to power, it legalised all slums that came up prior to January 1, 1995. In a further mockery, the present Democratic Front alliance, this week, extended this protection till 2000.

It was in 1996 that the then Sena-BJP government headed by Manohar Joshi, a builder himself, introduced the slum rehabilitation scheme. In later years, it would turn out to be the biggest scam involving mostly shady developers, slum lords, politicians, and sometimes, even the underworld.

Slum families were guaranteed free flats under the scheme. The selected developer would then receive a bonanza in the form of additional construction rights to build luxury towers on a portion of the slum land.

The entire exercise was flawed from the very first day. The formation of the Afzulpurkar committee in 1995 itself was faulty as it comprised builders and only one NGO representative was there. No slum dweller was involved in the decision-making. This was the beginning of the tragic circumstances into which the slum dwellers have been pushed today.

In 2001, the government-appointed S.S. Tinaikar committee was scathing in its observation on the slum policy, "The government has inflicted a highly iniquitous social policy, which is oriented to confer special favour of a 225 sq ft apartment on those who have encroached and squatted on public lands,'' it said.