‘Disparity in MHADA flat prices’

The state government has agreed that there has been a difference of price between the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (Mhada) houses given under the chief minister’s quota and the rest that are sold through lottery.   

The chief minister has a prerogative of allotting 2% of the houses constructed by Mhada. After the announcement of a lottery, 98% of the houses are sold through the procedure.  

In a September notification, the government mentioned that there is no policy about the pricing structure of these houses. However, it has finally been made clear that the chief minister’s quota of houses will have the same price as all the other Mhada houses.

“Although it is clear that these houses should be sold as per the prevalent Mhada rates at which the lottery houses are sold, it has been observed that the quota system lacks parity,” said the notification. It also said that all the houses constructed by Mhada should have uniform pricing, including those under the chief minister’s quota. 

In a number of cases houses were allotted to people who already were in possession of a Mhada house. When these cases were brought to the notice of the public by the media, the government issued the notification, a draft proposal of which was ready since 2005.

“The rule of uniform pricing was there in the law, but was not followed by many boards,” said the notification, making it clear that the government had to enforce the rule on several boards which were non-complying. 

It is expected that the 2% of the houses in chief minister’s quota are also sold during the lottery process. It is also expected that the cost of these houses is to be incurred by the beneficiaries. However, since this procedure has not been followed, the government has issued this fresh notification, said Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority sources. 

The notification, however, has still not brought any clarity on the issue of delay in allotment of houses. In many cases, the tenements are not given in time, resulting in the amount of interest on the loan taken by the applicant growing, sometimes even outgrowing the loan amount itself.

The government had asked Mhada to come up with a report which can suggest a remedy on this issue. However, the notification only states that there is no need to make any change in the allotment policy.