'SRA schemes not people-friendly'

The rehabilitation scheme for slum dwellers undertaken by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in the city are non-people-friendly, and breeds corruption at all levels.

This was stated by Madhura Lohokare, a research scholar from Syracuse University, in a presentation at OpenSpace in Pune on Monday.

“During the process of rehabilitation, the slum dwellers are completely kept aside. They have no say in the way the houses are built or designed. The only contribution they make is giving their consent, which often is extracted under duress,” she said.

Madhura, in course of her research, interviewed with a large number of slum dwellers in the city, who have been rehabilitated in SRA schemes, and also those who are yet to be
rehabilitated.

SRA is a state government scheme, under which a private builder is allowed to rehabilitate slum dwellers in 207-square-metre flats in exchange of commercial transfer of development rights (TDR).

“Those staying the SRA tenements told me that the lifts provided to them are most of the time out of order and they have to use the stairs. This becomes a problem, especially in case of the elderly and also the sick,” she pointed out.

Madhura  claimed that slum dwellers had told her that for mandatory consent, in more than 75% cases they were obtained under duress.

“The present system of obtaining consent is fraught with danger as the builder can use  muscle or money power to obtain it. Also, there is rampant corruption in the lists which are used to check for eligibility of slum dwellers for rehabilitation,” she said.