The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation plans to conduct a fresh survey to thrash out the issue of eligibility of slum dwellers, but developers say that this has been a thorny issue ever since the Dharavi redevelopment project came into being.
“The recent survey merely reaffirmed our concern. There is still so much opposition from various groups within Dharavi. As per slum rehabilitation rules, those residing on mezannine and first floors are not eligible for rehabilitation. Will the government take the responsibility of evicting them,” asked the chairman of a consortia, who has submitted his bid for the project.
A Delhi-based developer said that his agreement with a foreign partner fell through as the government failed to clear doubts about the agreement.
“Just days before the financial bids were to be opened, the government told us that the Mhada or the MMRDA will come out with rental schemes, whereby all slum dwellers found eligible would be accommodated. I do not know whether that would have resolved the issue,” said another developer.
Housing department officials are trying to calm the nerves. “A majority staying on the mezzanine floors are actually those staying on rent. They cannot be rehabilitated,” asked said an officer.
Sources said that following the recent survey, the government was seriously thinking of using the identity cards given to the slum dwellers given by Mashaal, an NGO which carried out a socio-economic survey on Dharavi residents, as the benchmark for deciding on eligibility. Going by it, even those who have purchased a hutment in 2005, would be eligible for free housing.
Senior officials said that if the government decides to go by the Mashaal findings, and legalises such “ineligible” tenants, there will be need for some more conditions to be imposed. Tenants showing proof of residing in a slum, anywhere in the city prior to 2000, or for that matter 2008 (there has to be a cut off date), but not in Dharavi, should be considered eligible, said an official. “But the problem is there is no way to be sure that the tenant is an Indian citizen. We know that over 10,000 Bangladeshis have purchased hutments in Dharavi, showing ration cards made in West Bengal as their proof. How do we identify them?” he asked.
