SRA needs more than 6 months for survey

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) and the minister of state for housing Ravindra Waikar were not able to reach a consensus over the time to be allotted for ‘Door-to-Door Biometric Slum Survey’ in Mumbai and Thane.

The SRA on Friday started its landmark programme of ‘Door-to-Door Biometric Slum Survey’. Under this programme, all the slum dwellers in Mumbai and Thane region will be identified. The slum dwellers will then be provided with a ‘Smart Card’ that will be a proof of them being the real owner of a shanty.

Mr Waikar said the SRA was expected to complete the survey in the next six months. “If it fails to meet the deadline, we will take action against the SRA officials,” Mr Waikar said.

However, Aseem Gupta, chief executive officer, SRA, said, “We will assign work to three companies, but it will take at least a year before we can come up with the number of slum dwellers and the process may take more than six months.”

Mr Gupta said the companies appointed by the SRA will form teams, and each member will carry a tablet with pre-loaded survey forms to collect information about the hutment and family. “The team members will also collect hard copies of all documents and submit them to the SRA. The functioning of SRA has changed and we wanted to directly communicate with the slum dwellers, which is the reason for the biometric survey. The slum dwellers can also apply for Aadhar card with the teams. In cases where wrong information is provided the SRA will have to rectify them, and so the process may take long time,” said Mr Gupta.