Illegal occupants of MHADA transit camps face eviction

Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (File photo) 

The Maharashtra government has dropped the plan to legitimise occupation of nearly 8,500 families residing illegally in transit shelters constructed by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) in Mumbai. While the state’s political leadership had announced plans to formulate a policy for legalising their stay in the run-up to the Mumbai civic polls earlier this year, a ministerial sub-committee on Wednesday decided against going ahead with the plan, following objections by the state’s law department.

The MHADA has built a total of 56 transit camps in the city that collectively account for 21,135 tenements. The illegal occupants in these shelters include those who have bought a house in collusion with MHADA’s rent collectors and those who have encroached upon by breaking into locked rooms.

Attempts to evict the illegal occupants have faced resistance in the past with political parties stepping up opposition to such action. But a recent court verdict, which had ruled in favour of eviction, is now being used as a ground to expedite the eviction process.

However, the BJP-led government, which is wary of a political fallout, has directed state authorities to examine the option of rehabilitating the occupants elsewhere in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY). The ministerial panel issued directions in this regard on Wednesday.

But the houses in MMR won’t come for free. “Those (illegal occupants) found eligible for accommodation under the PMAY will have to pay the construction cost for such homes,” a senior official said.

The sub-committee, meanwhile, cleared plans for in situ redevelopment of such transit camps, permitting those in legal occupation of tenements to bag permanent homes on site on a free-of-cost basis. Those desirous of availing the rehabilitation plan will, however, have to let go of their claim for free accommodation at the original site. While those who have transferred such tenements on their names through a registered deed with the original allottee would also be eligible for on-site rehabilitation, they will have to pay the construction cost and a premium as unearned value.

The bureaucracy, meanwhile, has opposed a proposal for legalising illegal transfer of tenements in the slum redevelopment project.

While norms bar slum dwellers, who have been accommodated in slum redevelopment projects, to sell their houses for at least 10 years, thousands of them have executed such transfers.