Doubts over Maharashtra scheme for slum dwellers

By Mahesh Vijapurkar

MUMBAI, SEP. 4. The Maharashtra Government has asked its Chief Secretary, Mr. V. Ranganathan, to study and formulate an Action to be Taken Report (ATR) on the findings of a panel which studied the manner in which the entire slum redevelopment scheme for provision of free housing to slum-dwellers was operated by the previous Shiv Sena - BJP Government.

According to Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh, a one-man panel headed by former civic chief, Mr. S. S. Tinaikar, found ``nothing redeeming in the project'' or the manner in which it was handled, leading to doubts of favouritism towards some builders including sanction of disproportionate loans to them. ``Mr. Tinaikar thinks the project need not be run at all,'' he said.

It may be recalled that the Sena-BJP Government had initiated a project aimed at providing free replacement housing in situ for shanty dwellers, planning to accommodate almost 45 lakh of them in about 7 or 8 lakh such tenements where builders were allowed to find profits in exploiting excess space they can create.

Mr. Deshmukh, however, has declined to indicate what the actual contents of the report are : ``Wait for a month. We will tell all when the ATR is ready.'' Given the speed with which the empowered panel was set up today, the Congress(I)-NCP Government is keen on coming down heavily on the handlers of the project in the earlier set up.

When real estate prices were in an unprecedented slump and the builder-promoters found the realisation was too little given the cost of building, the project ground to a very slow pace and often the builders had to be lured to push the activity levels by providing financial help in the shape of loans. It is here that some mishandling occurred.

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