The urban development department clarified this during a meeting with various mill workers’ union at Mantralaya on Thursday.
Only 28,000 houses will be available for the 1.20 lakh mill workers who have applied for housing on mill lands in south Mumbai. The urban development department clarified this during a meeting with various mill workers’ union at Mantralaya on Thursday.
Earlier, the government had promised 68,000 houses for the displaced mill workers. Under the state’s plan, the 58 mills that wanted to develop their land had to submit a third of the land as per the development control rules. While 15 of the mills were exempted from the rule, 24 are yet to submit a total of 23 hectares.
The unions expressed their discontent over the government’s failure to acquire land from 24 mills as 23,000 more tenements can come up on the 23 hectares. Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan directed urban development officials to take action against 24 mill owners and withhold permission for the development work if they do not surrender the specified land within three months.
Last August, the government had given the 24 mills six months’ time to submit their land to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada).
“Mhada has almost completed construction of 6,948 tenements on the land submitted by 19 mills, including New Hind Mills at Byculla, Shriram Mills at Worli, Piramal Mills at Lower Parel, Standard Mills at Prabhadevi and Swan Mills at Sewri,” said a Mhada official.The meeting also failed to address the issue of the cost of these houses.
“No discussion could take place on the cost of the houses, but the CM has assured us maximum subsidy on the rate and taxes. The state had quoted Rs 7.5 lakh for each house after a subsidy of Rs 2.5 lakh. We wanted the cost at Rs 3.5 lakh,” said Datta Iswalkar of the Girani Kamgar Sangharsha Samiti.
But, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena demanded the houses be given for free. Chavan said the final decision will be taken after discussing the matter with all legislators.
In October 2010, the government had invited applications from mill workers for low-cost housing and received 1.10 lakh applications.
“The government accepted the demand to allow legal heirs to apply and this resulted in another 10,000 applications,” said Eknath Mane of the Mumbai Girani Kamgar Union.
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