Ahir: No new applications for mill workers’ housing lottery

The state government has now decided to conduct the mill workers’ housing lottery without inviting applications. 

“The government has decided to conduct the lottery as soon as possible. And, as it is not for the public, we have decided to use the earlier data for this lottery process instead of seeking new applications,” said Sachin Ahir, minister of state for housing.

The government has also decided to give free homes to the kin of the 22 martyrs of the Maharashtra freedom struggle. But there is a hitch: The state officials do not have their proper addresses and are trying to get in touch with them.

In the last two years, Mhada, on the instruction of the state housing department, had published an advertisement appealing mill workers to fill the forms for a data collection drive — there was no mention of this data being used for the housing lottery.  

The officials are now taken aback as the chief minister has decided to take the draw for mill workers houses by using the data collected in two phases.

The authority received nearly 1.10 lakh forms from legal heirs of the mill workers in 2010, and 38,000 in 2011.

Mhada and housing department officials are tightlipped about what their stand will be if the lottery draw is challenged.