MUMBAI:
The state government is taking inspiration from the Centre for a concrete plan to safeguard the housing rights of its urban poor.
The government, which is in the process of rehabilitating slums across the state, is studying the Union government’s Housing for All (HFA) scheme to develop an effective housing initiative of its own.
Sources said the process of overhauling the slum rehabilitation authority (SRA) is on and it will include inputs from HFA. The Centre’s scheme envisages a home for all by 2022 and has proposed various models under which it could provide funds for slum rehabilitation.
Them ove comes after repeated demands from housing rights activists. Last month, led by activist Medha Patkar, the residents of Mandala village in Mankhurd have been protesting against the delay in rehabilitating them. They are also demanding a new scheme for housing the urban poor. Mandala had been short-listed for rehabilitation through the Rajiv Awas Yojana formulated by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. However, the scheme was scrapped after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power.
After SRA’s failure, the housing department is now studying the HFA, which was approved by the Cabinet last week. Ironically, the department is worried if the scheme will be able to ‘attract’ builders, especially in Mumbai.
A senior official from the housing department said, “Slum rehabilitation has to happen through builders because we don’t have as many resources to do it ourselves. We may not be able to make it as attractive as SRA is for builders in Mumbai, but outside Mumbai, we could possibly take inputs and develop it.”
Another bureaucrat said the state government was keen on utilising the Centre’s funds.
“We have a serious housing crisis emerging in our tier-2 cities and that is where HFA would come into use. We need more innovative models of slum rehabilitation and we believe HFA could show us the way,” he said.
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