Mumbai: The lack of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (Mhada) houses has raised questions over whether the blame might lie with Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sena leaders had held a rally outside the Mhada office in 2012, when the then government decided to ask houses from developers, while redeveloping Mhada colonies, instead of a premium (money) for giving a No Objection Certificate (NOC). However, the current government led by BJP changed it to premium and officials along with former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan claim that the biggest reason for lack of Mhada houses is this.
Mr Chavan, when he was the chief minister had come up with a proposal that for redevelopment of any of the 56 Mhada layout buildings, the developer would be giving a certain amount of housing stock to Mhada. Earlier, the developer would give money in terms of premium and get the required NOC. The aim, Mr Chavan claims, was to get housing stock that could be sold to the common man via lottery.
“There was a lot of builder pressure, the builder lobby wanted to give money and not give flats to us. There were builders who came to meet me with leaders from Sena-BJP, even Congress and NCP leaders. I asked them, why were they supporting builders, and none of them had any answer. All the builders waited for me to go and was expecting a new CM to overturn my decision,” said Mr Chavan.
Mr Chavan claimed that had his proposal not been overturned by the BJP-led government, the scarcity of housing stock would not have come up today. The BJP-led government came up with a decision last year that it instead of demanding housing stock from developers, they would give the NOC for a premium.
“Why should we not get homes from developers constructing building and profits on government land?” questioned Mr Chavan.
A senior Mhada official claimed that, had the housing stock decision not been changed, today the authorities would not have had a problem in holding a lottery for homes in Mumbai.
