Date:17/02/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/02/17/stories/2005021701651700.htm

Back Mill lands: Many issues yet to be resolved in Mumbai

Anna Peter

Mumbai , Feb. 16

WITH 595 acres of prime real estate in central Mumbai at stake, resolving the issue of textile mill lands in the city has acquired mammoth proportions.

This assumes significance especially with the lack of mill worker representation on the Review Committee formed to study the amended Development Control Regulation, Section 58 (DCR) of the State Government.

At a meeting today, a resolution, to be presented to the Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, was passed by mill workers, activists and members of the Mumbai Study Group and Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti.

The resolution highlights the inadequate representation given to mill workers in the Review Committee.

The resolution also urges the State Government to freeze construction being undertaken by mill owners who have been using the modified DCR 58 to boost their landholdings.

The State Government is also being asked to disclose the full extent of the land's ownership, and the justification for modifying the regulation and how the new DCR 58 will pay workers dues that are still pending. It has sought the National Textile Corporation's inclusion in this list.

Before the amendment, textile mill land in the city was to be divided three ways between mill owners, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) and the Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) and developed by the latter two for amenities for the city and low-cost housing for mill workers.

With the modifications in DCR 58, the combined mill area available for development to the MCGM and MHADA falls to six per cent from 60 per cent before the 2001 amendment.

Essentially, the modification ensured that only two-thirds of land with no structures on it would be given to MCGM and MHADA.

For instance, post-modification, of the 69,000 sq m of Hindustan Mills, the Mumbai municipal corporation will get 569 sq m, MHADA 600 sq m and the mill's owners roughly 61,000 sq m of area to develop. In land-starved Mumbai, this translates into a windfall.