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ShareMumbai: Contradictory to media reports that the state government has decided to fix January 1, 2000 as a cut-off date for regularising slums in the city, chief minister Ashok Chavan on Saturday asserted that "there are several legal hurdles in regularising slums up to 2000." He was speaking at a felicitation function of newly-elected Congress MPs from the city.
The Congress, in its manifesto in 2004, had promised to regularise slums up to January 1, 2000. Later, the party said that it was a "printing mistake". The Bombay High Court also refused to extend the cut-off date for regularising slums from January 1, 1995 to January 1, 2000. The state government approached the Supreme Court against the HC verdict.
At the function, Chavan reiterated that Mumbai belongs to every Indian who lives in the city legally. He came down heavily on Opposition parties for their "attempts to divide the people of Mumbai on the basis of caste, region and language." The statement is significant because it comes at a time when Chavan himself has admitted that the influx of migrants is a cause of concern for the state government.
"The Opposition always asks 'Mumbai konachi?' (whom does Mumbai belong to). I want to tell them that Mumbai belongs to all Indians who come here legally," Chavan said. "Divisive politics have no place in the city, which favours development and communal harmony."
Chavan refuted the Opposition's allegation that the Congress government has had a stepmotherly treatment to Mumbai. "It is only during Manmohan Singh's tenure as prime minister that the city got maximum attention, with over Rs20,000 crore being sanctioned for development projects. The draft of the Dharavi re-development project is in the final stage and the actual implementation will begin soon. The work on Bandra-Worli sea link will be completed by this month end too," said Chavan.
