The Times of India  17.08.2010

Mhada looks beyond city for affordable hsg

MUMBAI: Mumbai finds no mention in the list of places where the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) wants to buy land for `affordable housing'.

The advertisement issued by Mhada in Marathi newspapers on August 15 seeks to buy land from the open market in urban areas under the jurisdiction of its regional boards in Pune, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati, Nagpur and Konkan. This leaves out Mumbai and the closest one can now hope to get Mhada apartments is in Thane, which includes Vasai-Virar and in Raigad, which includes Panvel.

"My officers said we had no realistic chances of getting any land in Mumbai, so we struck it off the list,'' said Mhada CEO Gautam Chatterji. The move has led to protests from observers and housing activists. "This is an admission of the government's total failure to provide affordable housing in the capital of the state,'' said Sudheendra Kulkarni of Observer Research Foundation, which recently held a round table discussion on affordable housing.

Housing activist and former Mhada presidentChandrashekahar Prabhu said, Mhada can create a lot of opportunities for public housing in Mumbai if it does not hand over its own plots to builders for redevelopment.

"It is clear that the government does not want the poor in Mumbai,'' said Ashish Shelar, BJP corporator from Mumbai.

Architect and housing activist Neera Adarkar said that at this rate, Mumbai would soon have a situation akin to that of apartheid-era South Africa where the blacks had to have a night pass for staying back in the city beyond dusk.

Kulkarni and Shelar said that there are significant parcels of land in Mumbai which can be used for public housing if there is a proper coordination between various central and state agencies. Shelar said that the government must look at land available with the Mumbai Port Trust, the railways, the Airport Authority of India, etc and examine ways to use part of them for affordable housing.

The other cities where Mhada is seeking land from the market for public housing are Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Satara, Solapur, sangli, Kolhapur, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nandurbar, Ahmednagar, Wardha, Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, buldana, Akola, Washim, Yavatmal, Jalna, Hingoli, Beed, Parbhani, Nanded, Latur and Osmanabad.