Now, first floor chawl residents to get SRA flats

In a big relief to Chawl residents, the Maharashtra government has decided to amend the existing policy on the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) which restricts the Chawl residents living above the ground floor to acquire flats in a redevelopment project.  

The amendment will treat the residents living above the ground floor as legal ones, making them eligible for flats in the Chawl redevelopment projects in the city. 

Prakash Mehta, state housing minister, told DNA that the existing policy disqualifies anybody living above the ground floor as legal residents of the Chawl.

“The Mumbai city is known and famous for the chawls and its culture and most of these chawls are existing for several years. These chawls just come in the slum notified area but that does not mean that they should be denied their rights. We have asked the administration to amend the policy so that the chawls residents can get justice,” Mehta said.

BJP MP, Gopal Shetty, had met Prakash Mehta recently to discuss the demands regarding the change in the SRA policy for the chawl residents. 

“I have been raising this issue for the last ten years. The chawl residents were denied the houses according to the slum rehabilitation guidelines and rules. In the redevelopment projects, the houses should not only be given to the ground floor residents of the chawl,” Shetty had written in a letter to Mehta.

Another BJP MLA, Yogesh Sagar, said that the SRA scheme was launched with the intention of providing accomodation and better living conditions to slum dwellers and Chawl residents. 

However, in most cases, the builder used to promise houses to the chawl residents in redevelopment projects just to get their consent. But, once the chawl had been vacated and redeveloped, the first-floor residents were flatly denied their rights, explained Sagar.

EARLIER POLICY

• The existing SRA policy considers anyone living above the ground floor in a Chawl as illegal residents
   
• These residents were not given flats in the SRA redevelopment projects 
   
• The amendment will legally allow them to claim their dues