After raising the price of MHADA homes to a whopping Rs 1.61 crore, sources in MHADA have claimed that the number of houses for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) in the forthcoming lottery is going to be zero, at least for now.

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A document from MHADA officials, available with DNA, shows that the total number of houses in the forthcoming lottery has been fixed to 716 homes. Worried about receiving flak, sources claim that MHADA officials are now searching for at least half a dozen homes from the EWS category to save face. While the process is still on, senior officials claimed that the number was almost final.

This comes as a surprise, considering MHADA’s main aim has been to provide affordable housing to EWS and Lower Income Group (LIG). Though LIG does find a mention in the list, the EWS homes are nowhere to be seen.

As per the document, the number of Higher Income Group (HIG) homes are 168, of which all are in Powai. A total of 226 homes are for Middle Income Group (MIG), and they are located in Vikhroli and Kandivali. The remaining homes belong to LIG, and are located in Goregaon, Pratiksha Nagar, Unnat Nagar and Kandivali.

While the advertisement for the lottery is expected to be out soon, the leak of documents has worried MHADA officials. A senior official said, “At present, we do not have any EWS houses in the lottery, our officers are struggling to find them. We have identified about six to seven EWS houses and are hoping that it works out. The current list at present doesn’t have any EWS homes in lottery.”

...& ANALYSIS

  • The officers in MHADA’s Mumbai board are busy finding EWS homes before the final advertisement for the 2017 lottery is brought out. Even if they find these homes, officials still claim that they will be less in number. To save their face, MHADA officials are now working hard so that they aren’t at the receiving end of flak.