Shiv Sena speaks up against opening of salt pan lands for housing

Shiv Sena and the BJP are at loggerheads yet again, this time over the ambitious plan of opening up Mumbai's salt pan lands to create affordable housing.

Shiv Sena leader and Environment Minister Ramdas Kadam has come out openly against housing on salt pan lands. Kadam, while speaking to media persons on Wednesday, said that Shiv Sena would not allow the salt pans to be used for construction purposes under any circumstances. Stating that the party would stage protests against this move, he went ton to say how opening of salt pans for the housing sector will put stress on the ecology of the city. He also questioned why the government did not undertake housing projects for public on a large scale when the urban land ceiling regulation act was in force. He reminded that until the state repealed its land ceiling law of 2007, individuals in urban areas could own more than 500 sq m residential land only if they permitted public housing in 5 per cent of the excess land. Such land, which developers should have handed over to public housing but didn't, adds up to around 1,850 acres in Mumbai and another 4,000 acres in the metropolitan region.