Building houses for poor in times of realty boom

15 years ago, Mrinal Gore’s NGO initiated a project that built 5,000 flats on a 60-acre land in Dindoshi at Goregaon

The senior Janata Dal (S) leader Mrinal Gore, nicknamed as paniwali bai (water woman), has embarked on a mission to provide low-cost housing to Mumbaikars.

Dismissing the Democratic Front (DF) government’s housing policy as an “eye-wash” she is single-handedly waging a battle against government decision to scrap Urban Land Ceiling Act (ULCA). Her non-government organisation (NGO) Brihanmumbai Niwara Abhiyan has launched a low-housing campaign.

According to Gore, “We are not pleading for free houses from the government. The middle-class Mumbaikars are ready to pay the price for shelter. But it should be reasonable. The government has done nothing to rein in the builders charging exorbitant rates from the people.”

Gore admitted her NGO has collected Rs100 crore from over one lakh individuals, seeking low-cost houses in the city.

The NGO had appealed to all Mumbaikars interested in low-cost houses to deposit Rs10,000 each and register themselves for the project.

The response was overwhelming as people across the suburbs supported the idea of low-housing project.

However, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh asserted that once implemented, new housing policy will automatically serve all sections of the society.

He argues, “There is a special package within the housing policy for middle and lower-income groups.” He also denied government was supporting the builders’ interest.

Fifteen years ago Nagarik Niwara Parishad (NNP) was instituted to provide houses for low-income group people. After a prolonged tussle with government, Gore’s NGO succeeded in constructing some 6,000 houses each at Rs2.5 lakh at Dindoshi on a 65-acre land.

The campaign was aimed at horizontal growth of the city. However, lack of land forced the NGO to go for ground plus three-storeyed construction.

Gore fears once the ULCA is scrapped, the government will have no control on land. There is no income limit restriction in its campaign.

The only condition is that the applicant should not own any other house in Mumbai.
The biggest challenge for Gore’s trust is to acquire land from the Mhada at low cost.

The trust wants 200 hectares of land for one lakh houses. It has asked for
400 hectares of land from the state government to accommodate two lakh families supporting the said project.

Gore said, “Low-cost housing is not a myth. Our trust has already constructed over 5,000 flats on a 60-acre plot in suburban Dindoshi for lower and middle-income groups a couple of years ago.”

A section of Shiv Sena leaders who are opposed to scrapping of ULCA said, “The role of Mhada was to provide low-cost houses to middle-class and lower-middle class people in Mumbai.

However, today even Mhada is either constructing high-income group houses or just repairing old buildings.

The NGO’s founder member PB Samant argues that the government is clearly lacking political will. It is interested in protecting the builders’ lobby and not catering to common man’s requirement.

How else does one explain the spiralling land prices despite 30,000 acres of excess land, of which 17,000 acres is controlled by 338 individuals or trusts,” he said.

According to Samant, “The government has acquired 1,200 acres of land under the ULCA till December, 2006 and the state government has told the Bombay High Court that by this year end the government will acquire the remaining 17,000 acres of land.”