Mumbai's slum rehabilitation scheme: Slum dwellers short changed by politician-builder nexus

MUMBAI: Last week, a senior state Congress leader, when asked, why successive governments in Maharashtra failed to review or overhaul the criminal slum rehabilitation scheme in Mumbai, replied: '' Any attempt to change the policy will be scuttled by politicians and elected representatives cutting across party lines. Many of them have invested their slush funds or are partners in this builder-driven scheme.''

Some of Mumbai's most ultra-luxurious towers (with swimming pools in apartments) have come up on slum lands even as slum families are rehabilitated and pushed in a small corner of the plot in dinghy buildings. The late S S Tinaikar, in his report submitted to the state government in 2001, had described the slum scheme as ''of the builders, for the builders and by the builders.''

A dangerous trend is the rivalry between groups of builders to muscle in into the slum plot. Many times, it is alleged, some developers hire local goons and the underworld to arm twist slum dwellers into giving their consent for the project. Mumbai's Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) rules mandate that any developer who succeeds in procuring the consent of 70% of the slum residents gets to redevelop the property. Under the cross-subsidy scheme, the developer has to rehouse eligible slum families in new buildings free of cost. As incentive, the developer can exploit a portion of the plot to build luxury towers for sale in the open market.

In the past the courts have made scathing observations about this controversial scheme. In July 2006, the Bombay high court had observed that ''the SRA scheme has become a profitable business venture attracting persons, who are forcing their decision on the slum dwellers by the posts they are holding...''

''The SRA scheme is meant for benefit of slum dwellers...However, we find that those who should not participate in the decision making process are not only participating but are also taking the responsibility on themselves to decide as to who should be the builder. This is totally undesirable.''

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