Maharashtra government takes step to regularise pre-2000 illegal slums

The state government issued the government resolution (GR) with regards to the regularisation of pre-2000 illegal slums, on Tuesday.

Sachin Ahir, state minister for housing, told dna that this decision of regularising will benefit almost 3.5 lakh slums dwellers. "The majority of pre-2000 slums are located in Mumbai. The condition is that the person should have been staying in the pre-2000 slums at least for one year and has to produce two legal documents of staying there. He also needs to pay Rs40,000 for residential and Rs60,000 for commercial, in order to obtain the occupation certificate. The eligible slum can be transferred to the blood relation of the slum-dwellers," said Ahir.

He said that these pre-2000 illegal slum residents can redevelop their locality, under the existing slum redevelopment authority (SRA) schemes. "If in any locality, some part is already developed, then the remaining part can be developed in the second phase," said Ahir.

Political observers said that it is a game-changing decision for the Congress party. "It will surely change the Congress' image and help in the upcoming state assembly elections," he said.