Minister promises slum rehabilitation

A recent satellite mapping survey has revealed that slums have encroached on 3.5sq km of government land in the city between 1995 and 2000. “I plan to survey the slums in the coming days to decide how much money needs to be set aside to rehabilitate the slum dwellers,” said Jayant Patil, state finance minister and Mumbai’s guardian minister.

He also disagreed with both Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said they wanted to transform Mumbai into another Shanghai.

“Our aim is not to make Mumbai the No. 1 city in the world,” he said, while visiting BMC headquarters on Thursday. “We are striving to improve citizens’ standard of living and give them basic amenities.”

Patil also assured Mayor Datta Dalvi, Commissioner Johny Joseph and other officials that he would help the BMC improve the city’s infrastructure. “Mumbai’s greenery has disappeared,” Patil said. “BMC needs to build more gardens and transform the city like Hyderabad did.”