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Hindustan Times
14 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
HC upholds eviction of 48 slum dwellers for implementing rehab scheme
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday ordered the eviction of 48 slum dwellers, who had kept on hold a slum rehabilitation scheme meant for 689 hutment dwellers by challenging the authority of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to evict them. (Shutterstock) The case arose out of a slum rehabilitation project under the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act, 1971, which dealt with 689 slum dwellers at the Aman Shanti Co-op Society. Out of this, 645 were declared eligible for rehabilitation, with 641 already vacating the premises to facilitate the construction. The SRA delegated a tehsildar to evict the remaining occupants. The tehsildar on August 22, 2024 passed an order, directing the occupants to hand over possession to the developer, India Construction. However, the occupants approached the Apex Grievance Redressal Committee (AGRC), which dismissed their appeal on May 20, 2025. Subsequently, they moved the Bombay high court, raising questions on the jurisdiction of the tehsildar in the matter. Senior counsel Girish Godbole submitted that the tehsildar lacked jurisdiction to entertain the application, therefore the entire proceedings stand vitiated. He contended that despite a notification declaring the plot as a slum area was issued, the chief executive officer (CEO) of SRA cannot assume jurisdiction over it without a specific declaration made under the provision of the Slum Areas Act. Advocate Mayur Khandeparkar, appearing for the developer, said, 'The proper execution of the slum rehabilitation scheme is being held at ransom by the petitioners, which ought not to be permitted.' He also submitted that the contentions raised by the petitioners are unsustainable. While they were seeking benefits under the slum rehabilitation scheme, they were also challenging the jurisdiction of the same authority to entertain the proceedings of the case. Dismissing the petition, the single judge bench of justice Manish Pitale held that a declaration under the Slum Areas Act was not necessary for sanctioning a scheme of slum rehabilitation governed by the Development Control Regulations. The judge said that since the petitioners are not opposed to the rehabilitation scheme, they cannot be permitted to turn around and pick and choose provisions of the Slum Areas Act at liberty to suit their convenience. 'The petitioners have conceded to taking benefits of the slum rehabilitation scheme being implemented by the SRA. Therefore, they cannot claim that the CEO of SRA or his delegate can have no role to play while considering their eviction for speedy implementation of the same scheme,' the court said. Directing them to vacate the premises by July 11, 2025, the court said that petitioners are holding on to possession, which is creating unnecessary hurdles in speedy implementation of the scheme. 'The petitioners cannot be permitted to hold such a vast majority of slum dwellers to ransom by raising such pleas of hyper-technical nature while challenging the impugned orders,' the bench concluded.
India Today
4 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Mumbai's Kamathipura poised for redevelopment: Why residents are excited
The decks have been cleared for the largest such cluster redevelopment project in Mumbai with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) floating tenders for the redevelopment of Kamathipura in south Mumbai. The MHADA is looking at appointing a construction and development agency for the will cover around 943 cessed buildings (those that pay a repair cess to MHADA), and 350 non-cessed buildings, 14 religious places and two schools run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Many of these buildings are over a century old and, hence, in a dilapidated condition. Put together, 9,761 tenants, including 8,385 residential and 1,376 commercial, will be covered. This also includes 1,760 landlord crumbling buildings in the 15 lanes that will be reconstructed include houses that measure around 100-150 square feet. The smallest tenements are just 60 sq ft, forcing many people to sleep on the roads at night. It is not uncommon to find even more than one family living in a matchbox-sized room. Residents also complain that the floors of these buildings, which are built on lands reclaimed from swamps and marshes, are sinking. Now, the residents will get around 500 sq ft houses, and commercial units will be given structures of the same redevelopment will be done in an integrated manner under Regulation 33(9) of the Development Control Regulations by the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board, which comes under MHADA. The successful bidder will receive around 567,000 sq metres of development rights; a housing stock of approximately 4,500 new units is expected to be In December 2022, the state cabinet approved a proposal to appoint MHADA as the nodal agency for the 27.59 acres cluster redevelopment scheme, which will be the largest such Brownfield project in Mumbai and cover approximately 100,000 the 18th century, the Telugu-speaking 'Kamathi' workers from the dominions of the Nizam of Hyderabad came to Mumbai. They worked as construction labour and settled on a marshy plot of land in south Mumbai. In 1804, the government reclaimed this land to house these workers and thus, Kamathipura, or the 'area of the Kamathis', was Kamathis also staffed Mumbai's textile mills, integrated with the local Marathi culture, played a seminal role in the development and growth of Mahatma Jotiba Phule's Satyashodhak Samaj, and were part of the vanguard of the 'Samyukta Maharashtra' movement that ensured statehood for Maharashtra in 1960. In his seminal work on the role of the Telugus in the development of Mumbai, journalist and author Manohar Kadam refers to them as the sword arm of the Samyukta Maharashtra gradually, this area developed an unpalatable reputation of sorts due to the sex trade operating from some of its lanes. Mumbai's position as a port city and military centre, coupled with high numbers of migrant workers, led to a rise in this trade. In colonial Mumbai, apart from Indian sex workers, it was not uncommon to find European women who were engaged in the Ashwini Tambe mentions that in the colonial era, they lived principally in Kamathipura. This has also been depicted in Hindi films, most recently the Alia Bhatt-starrer Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022). S.M. Edwardes, the former police commissioner of Bombay (1909-16), wrote that the arterial Cursetji Shuklaji Street, on Kamathipura's borders, was known as 'safed galli', or white lane, due to the European sex historian Deepak Rao noted that Shuklaji Street also had Chinese residents, Chinese social clubs and opium and gambling dens, and even a Chinese graveyard has left much of this past behind. It is now a market for textiles, electronic goods and recycled scrap, and the sex trade is taking its last gasps. But the stereotypes continue to persist, much to the chagrin of residents. This also overshadows the larger contribution of Kamathipura to contemporary instance, young Ambedkarites such as Namdeo Dhasal and fellow poet J.V. Pawar, who stayed at 'Vaakdi Chawl' at Siddharthnagar in Kamathipura's lane number one, birthed the Dalit Panther movement on May 29, 1972, to protest against the caste Vishal Yelle, a Kamathipura resident and general practitioner, welcomed the redevelopment plan. 'Now that the tender has been floated, we are more than halfway through. All residents, shopkeepers and landlords are eagerly awaiting the redevelopment for years,' he said many families who had given their dwellings on rent and shifted to larger houses in places like Virar were also expected to move back to Kamathipura once the area was redeveloped. 'Kamathipura has excellent rail connectivity due to its proximity to the Mumbai Central Railway Station, access to hospitals and playgrounds. The only issue that locals face is the small size of their houses,' he Patel, four-term Congress MLA from Mumbadevi, whose constituency covers Kamathipura, said the project had the potential to transform the lives of the people. 'MHADA must undertake this work in a transparent manner and ensure that it is completed within a period of five to seven years,' he say the redevelopment will help change the way their working-class locality is perceived by the society at large and boost their prospects in terms of jobs, marriage proposals and even loans and credit cards. This is regardless of the dwindling presence of the 'red-light' area in Kamathipura. Many brothel owners have sold or rented their premises to traders and manufacturers of goods like bags and jeans, and many women involved in the sex trade have shifted to the distant suburbs. Some of those who ply their trade stay in parts of the eastern suburbs and beyond and travel here for to India Today Magazine- Ends
Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
MHADA extends amnesty scheme for housing societies awaiting occupancy certificates until December 31
In a huge relief to housing societies that are waiting for occupancy certificates, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has also extended the time for its two current special amnesty schemes until December 31, 2025. The extension, sanctioned under the supervision of MHADA's vice-president and CEO Sanjeev Jaiswal is likely to benefit almost 80 housing societies in Mumbai. The extension is for two schemes: one for issuing occupancy certificates (OC) to redeveloped buildings under the 1991 Development Control Regulations (DCR), and another for waiving interest on additional premium amounts charged during redevelopment under MHADA's jurisdiction. According to Authority Resolution No. 6260, MHADA's Mumbai Board will continue to waive interest on pending additional premiums levied on housing societies. These societies will now pay only the principal amount, relieving the financial burden that has slowed the granting of occupancy certificates for most projects. At the same time, the Building Permission Cell is also offering an amnesty scheme for buildings redeveloped under DCR 1991. The scheme gives a 'concession' of up to 75 per cent on penalty charges imposed for unauthorised use of rooms like enclosed flowerbeds or balconies and minor variations from approved plans. It will be applicable to buildings that took building permissions under DCR 1991 till November 12, 2018. Several societies were issued No-Objection Certificates (NOC) or Letters of Intent (LoI) between 29 July 2004 and 4 June 2007 and were subsequently requested to pay extra premiums, but on account of non-payment, their occupancy certificates are pending. Consequently, people occupying these societies have been faced with increased utility bills, tax dues, and inconveniences in the sale or transfer of the flat. 'While physically, the majority of buildings have been completed and are transferred to the societies by developers, the financial liability of outstanding premium payments has stayed with the societies as well as members. The interest waiver scheme now provides them with a realistic route to regularisation,' a MHADA spokesperson said. Where building plans have been changed above approved limits, a 75 per cent concession on penalty is permissible under the amnesty scheme, subject to recovery of fees on revised plans.
Hindustan Times
30-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Practice what you preach, BMC told, on SWM draft bye-laws
MUMBAI: 'Practice what you preach' is one of the messages for the civic administration, which has invited suggestions and objections to its draft Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Cleanliness and Sanitation Bye-Laws 2025. With only two to go before the deadline to submit them, HT asked experts and activists to weigh in on the proposed bye-laws. Some also questioned how waste collection and segregation would be carried out in slums, while others focused on the missing role of informal waste pickers in the system. 'My main contention is that the BMC is itself not equipped to deal with what it is asking of citizens,' said Debi Goenka, executive trustee of the NGO Conservation Action Trust (CAT). 'Even when citizens segregate their waste into dry and wet, the BMC is often seen mixing the two, bringing citizens' efforts to nought.' In other words, Goenka said, the BMC doesn't practice what its bye-laws preach. Goenka also wondered how the civic administration proposed to enforce a whole new set of rules when there were ample gaps in infrastructure and implementation of the BMC's policies. 'The BMC talks about prohibiting littering, but there are far too few public bins and the ones that are there are often overflowing,' he said. 'Now, all of a sudden, the civic body is expecting homes to segregate waste into four categories. Yet there is little on the BMC's responsibility for providing the proper infrastructure for storage, and timely and proper segregated collection of the waste. 'They are also making it compulsory for bulk waste generators to compost wet waste within their own premises, but most lack any space to walk in their housing societies, occupied by parked cars. Even the latest Development Control Regulations (DCR) don't mandate space for this during construction,' Goenka said. He made another powerful point. 'There is no onus on the manufacturers of waste, especially plastic. Instead, they have introduced loopholes which allow manufactures to escape the rules with regard to plastic waste, simply by saying it will apply to those with the 'main component' of plastic. This is an easy way out for manufacturers producing tetrapacks,' he said. Kedar Sohoni, founder of the NGO Green Communities Foundation, highlighted the glaring lack of attention to waste in slums and the role of informal waste pickers in the system. 'In the slums, even simple door-to-door waste collection is broken. Most dump their garbage in community bins, which means no segregation,' he said, at a townhall on solid waste management, organised by Mumbai Donut CoLAB with other NGOs, on Wednesday. 'Neither have they taken steps to integrate waste pickers into the system, when ideally, they should be an integral part of the waste collection process, doing the door-to-door collection of segregated waste,' he said. Sohoni pointed out that the dry waste segregation centres, meant to sort dry waste at the ward level and dispatch it for recycling, are falling apart. 'The BMC should extend the consultative process on the bye-laws and work on improving them,' he said. Natasha D'Costa, founder of the NGO Start Upcycling Now, and who was also present at the townhall, said, 'The bye-laws make no mention of waste pickers. Rather, they state that all the waste will go to the BMC. This leaves the question of what will happen to private vendors and the unorganised sector, which forms the backbone of the unorganised waste market.' Meanwhile, Goenka, Sohini and D'Costa welcomed the BMC's decision to defer the user fee for garbage collection in Mumbai. 'The BMC has not provided a rationale for charging the fee, when we're already paying property tax, which is meant to cover these services,' said Goenka. In any case, Sohoni said, any user fee should be based on the volume of waste generated, not the area of the home. 'This gives an incentive to citizens to reduce their waste, rather than continuing to generate more waste as they're paying for it,' he said. Until now, over 2,500 responses have been submitted to the draft bye-laws, a substantial number relating to the now-deferred user fee.
Indian Express
10-05-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
MHADA issues awareness circular on redevelopment of old cessed buildings in Mumbai
To expedite the redevelopment of ageing and structurally unsafe buildings in Mumbai, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) has issued awareness circulars to housing societies, urging them to initiate redevelopment under the newly amended Section 79A of the MHADA Act. The move comes ahead of the monsoon season, when the risk posed by dilapidated buildings becomes more severe. There are 13,091 cessed buildings within the purview of the Mumbai Building Repairs and Reconstruction Board, most of which are more than a few decades old and are considered uninhabitable. According to officials, redevelopment of these buildings has been an urgent concern for a long time, especially considering the high population density and structural weaknesses in South Mumbai. As part of an overall awareness drive initiated by Sanjeev Jaiswal, CEO and vice-president, MHADA, circulars have been dispatched to the different housing societies, bringing to the fore the statutory framework that can be availed for redevelopment. The drive has followed a previous directive issued earlier this year to conduct structural inspections of 500 buildings. Structural audit reports have already come in for 540 of the 555 buildings covered so far, officials said. 'Preventive repair and redevelopment of structurally risky buildings on a timely basis will save lives and property and can avoid probable mishaps,' said Jaiswal, stating that the audit for all 13,091 buildings will be finished in one year. According to the recently implemented 'Section 79A of the MHADA Act', the redevelopment has been simplified by having a distinct timeline. The landlords of such properties have to make a redevelopment proposal within six months, along with the irrevocable agreement of at least 51 per cent of the occupants or tenants. If they do not, the cooperative housing society that has been established by the residents can make a proposal within the next six months. In case of non-action within these 12 months, MHADA can take over the property and undertake redevelopment on its own. All concerned stakeholders, such as landlords, residents, and housing societies, have been encouraged by MHADA to avail themselves of floor space index (FSI) incentives under Development Control Regulations 33(7) and 33(9). Housing societies have also been requested to contact the concerned Executive Engineers for more details and guidance.
