The Hindu : National : Demolishing slums not a mistake: Deshmukh

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Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

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Demolishing slums not a mistake: Deshmukh

By Kalpana Sharma

MUMBAI, FEB. 8. On completing 100 days in office, the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, told The Hindu that he had no regrets about his policy of demolishing slums in Mumbai or of promising free power to farmers in Maharashtra.

"Sometimes you have to take tough decisions," he said about his Government's recent action of demolishing over 80,000 slum houses in Mumbai. By demolishing slums he did not mean no one could enter Mumbai. "Our Government has given an affidavit in the High Court that we will not extend the cut-off date beyond January 1, 1995." All political parties in the State had agreed in 1995 to accept this date as final for permitting unauthorised structures. They had also agreed to a law that made constructing slums after this date a cognizable offence. All he was doing, he said, was implementing the law.

When asked why his own party had promised in its election manifesto that it would extend this cut- off date to 2000, thereby protecting slums built after 1995, Mr. Deshmukh said, "I was not associated with drafting the manifesto." Party manifestos made many promises and his Government had formed an implementation committee to see how these promises could be fulfilled "in the next five years and not in 100 days." He said that by and large, his action of pushing through slum demolitions had the support of people who wanted Mumbai to be transformed into a world-class city. Luckily, he said, the Prime Minister was personally interested in the project.

One of the major challenges before the State Government was how it would deal with its Rs. 1.13 lakh crores deficit. Had the Government learned any lessons from the past five years that it would carry forward in this term?

The Chief Minister laid the blame for the deficit at the feet of the Shiv Sena-BJP Government that ruled the State from 1995 to 2000. "From the time of Maharashtra's formation in 1960 until 1995, the State had a deficit of only Rs. 16,000 crores. This jumped to Rs. 48,000 crores in the next five years." He said the previous Congress-led Government could do nothing to reverse this trend, as it had to service the loans already taken.

He was confident, Mr. Deshmukh said, that the 12th Finance Commission would come forward with a scheme to help Maharashtra to service 50 per cent of the debt that was owed to the Central Government by reducing interest rates and permitting a longer period for repayment. "If that happens, most of our worries will be over", he said. "This was once a disciplined state, a well-administered state," he said and hoped that the State's reputation would be eventually restored.

The Chief Minister acknowledged that the State faced an acute power crisis. Although the current power deficit was in the region of 2,500 MW, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board had projected that if no additional capacity was added in the next five years, the deficit would go up to 7,500 MW by 2010. "Our first priority is to restart the Dabhol power project" that would make an additional 500 MW available. In addition, the State was considering increasing the capacity of existing power projects such as the ones at Parli and Uran and awaiting more power from the Tarapur Atomic Power Station.

Asked whether the State Government planned to continue giving free power to farmers beyond March 31, the Chief Minister was noncommittal. "No farmer asked for free power. There was no agitation, no demand. The Shiv Sena announced it and we also took a stand. But they only announced it, we implemented it," he said. The State Government, he said, was studying various options including the strategy pursued by the Andhra Pradesh Government. There would be no change until March 31.

Mr. Deshmukh said his Government was encouraging private airlines to provide air links to smaller towns in the State. Air Deccan had already committed that it would begin flights to Nashik from March 1. Kolhapur has also been linked. He said he expected that places like Latur, Nanded, Amravati, Akola and Ratnagiri would also be connected by air before long. All these places had airstrips that were being augmented.

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