Mumbai: Ignoring their own economic survey which said that outsiders were a burden on the infrastructure, the Congress-led Democratic Front government is all set to extend the cut-off date for slum rehabilitation from January 1, 1995 to January 1, 2000. This will be the third extension of the deadline, first set for 1985, and will make all pre-2000 squatters eligible for free housing.
   Sources said the order will be issued in the form of an ordinance which may come as early as next weekend. Assembly elections are due in September and the ordinance will have to be passed before the model code of conduct comes into force.
   The first cut-off date, 1985, was set in 1991 by the Congress government when the Development Control regulations came into force in March 1993. It was extended to 1995 after the Sena-BJP government came to power in April 1995.
   “This is votebank politics at its worst. The answer does not lie in extending some cut-off date but in taking serious steps to ensure that encroachment does not take place,’’ said Nayana Kathpalia, convenor of Citispace, which is fighting for open spaces.
   Confirming the proposal to extend the deadline, Congress MLA and Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) president Kripashankar Singh said this was one of the issues discussed when Congress and NCP MLAs met chief minister Ashok Chavan a week ago.
   “The CM assured us that it would be done very soon. It will benefit over ten lakh families in Mumbai,’’ said Singh, adding that during the last winter session, then CM Vilasrao Deshmukh had assured the assembly that the government was committed to extending the cut-off date.

THE REHAB

l 70% of slumdwellers in an area can get together to appoint a developer to build
free SRA homes of 269 sq ft
each on the plot
l The unutilised extra space can be commercially exploited by the developer

THE BACKGROUND

1991 | A Development Control rule says a slum can be redeveloped at 2.5 FSI if the slumdweller’s name is in the 1985 electoral rolls & Rs 15,000 is paid by each slum unit
1995 | The Shiv Sena-BJP government makes January 1, 1995 the cut-off date and offers free units
June 2009 | The Democratic Front government plans to bring in an ordinance regularising slums up to
January 1, 2000

WHAT IT MEANS

FOR SLUMDWELLERS | Free housing for all pre-2000 slumdwellers in city
FOR THE CITY | It will be a major planning and infrastructure challenge, with more land and facilities needed to accommodate lakhs of slumdwellers

SLUM REHAB

Cut-off extension: State treading on thin ice
Mumbai: S S Zende, chief executive officer of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), said on Wednesday that he was unaware of the DF government’s proposal to extend the cut-off date for slum rehabilitation to 2000, adding that it would be an entirely political decision.
   The January 1, 1995 cut-off date has already been extended to January 1, 2000 in case of slums that obstruct vital infrastructure projects. It was first done for the Mumbai Urban Transport Project, wherein the World Bank that was funding the project set the baseline survey date for slum rehabilitation as the day on which it was being carried out. Thus the 2000 cut-off date began to be applied to other infrastructure projects as well.
   The extension of the cut-off date has been a ticklish issue for the Congress-led Democratic Front government as in a public interest litigation filed in the Bombay high court against slum protection, the government in an affidavit before the court in 2001 had stated that it would not extend the cut-off date.
   It showed commitment to this affidavit when the state legislature passed the second amendment to the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act 2001, whereby those abetting such encroachment would be imprisoned for one year and fined Rs 2,500.
   In another PIL filed by Janhit Manch, the HC in 2006 upheld the 1995 cut-off date. The government then approached the Supreme Court asking for the cut-off date to be extended. “The Supreme Court had recently asked the state government what it wanted. All that the state government now needs to do is file an affidavit saying it will frame legislation extending the cut-off date. Since the legislature is supreme there should be no problem,’’ said Singh.
   In fact, the first demand for extending the cut-off date was made by Singh in 2003 when Sushilkumar Shinde was the chief minister. On the eve of the 2004 assembly polls, Shinde had declared, “Slum-dwellers are our god.’’
   According to the 1991 census, the city’s slum population was 58 lakh as against a non-slum population of 61 lakh. During the recent Lok Sabha election the poor turnout in Mumbai was largely blamed on the absent slum voters.
   An extension of the deadline will be the fulfillment of the Congress’s promise in its 2004 assembly election manifesto which it later brushed off as a printing mistake. In December 2004, the Vilasrao Deshmukh government had backed a BMC drive to demolish illegal hutments. The BMC had then claimed to have removed 70,000 illegal shanties and freed 306 acres from encroachment.
   Simpreet Singh of the National Alliance of People’s Movement said it was a poll gimmick. “There is a case pending in the Supreme Court where the state government has sought the permission of the court to extend the cut-off date. The cut-off date is absurd because it has created more problems for slum-dwellers. It is the state’s obligation to provide affordable housing. The poor have not asked for free housing,’’ he said.
   Singh pointed out that following the mass demolitions in late 2004 and early 2005, a PIL had been filed against the demolitions. “The HC had then set up a 20-member panel headed by the state chief secretary to formulate a housing policy for slum-dwellers post January 1, 1995. How will the government then explain the ordinance,’’ he asked.