Rewarding robbers

Imagine that you are assigned a spacious official bungalow as part of your job. Someone comes and occupies a part of your living room. He builds a tent, and you ignore him or probably even ask him to pay you some money for it. After many years, he has now built many more rooms in your living room.

Now imagine your boss walking into your home. What do you think he will do? Of course those people living in your living room who would be rightly called encroachers would be asked to leave your room by your employer. That is natural justice. It is perfectly understandable even by a child. Not only that, imagine what would happen to you? You would be immediately dismissed from your job, no doubt about it! You would be called crazy to even think that your boss would reward these encroachers with a bungalow!

Now when you compare this with what is happening to encroachers who have been caught occupying land belonging to others including the Government, you wonder who is crazy!

12 Dec 2015 Hindustan Times (Mumbai) Shailesh Gaikwad shailesh.gaikwad@hindustantimes.com writes:

Slum dwellers may get homes on Centre’s land

State government is in talks with the railway and defence ministries for rehabilitation of slum dwellers on land owned by them in Mumbai

The state government is in talks with Centre for insitu rehabilitation of slums on land owned by Centre’s departments and agencies such as the Railways, Defence, Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) and Mumbai airport.

“We are in talks with the railway and defence ministries for rehabilitation of slum dwellers on l and owned by them in Mumbai. The response from both the ministries is positive,” said Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in reply to a debate on the pending issue of resettlement of slums on airport land initiated by Mumbai legislator Parag Alavani in the state Assembly on Friday.

The government is also seeking a legal clarification on the cut-off date—on whether it is January 2000 or December 2000 — to check for the eligibility under the slum rehabilitation scheme.

“The high court decided it should be 2000, but we want a clarification on whether it should be January 1, 2000 or December 31, 2000,” said Fadnavis. If the deadline is fixed at December 2000, a few lakh more slum dwellers will become eligible for free rehabilitation under state’s slum rehabilitation programme. The ruling BJP wants the decision to be taken ahead of the civic polls in Mumbai in early 2017.

The defence ministry has given its in-principle approval for rehabilitation of slums on their land in Mumbai, said Fadnavis, adding that railway minister Suresh Prabhu has asked the state government to submit a fresh proposal after which a model is likely to be worked out soon.

Officials from the state housing department said the state is planning to prepare a model which will ensure rehabilitation of all slums on lands owned by the Centre in Mumbai. Besides defence, lands belonging to the railways, Mb PT, airport and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) have also been encroached upon.

The state wants the Centre to allow in-situ development of the slums, as often slum dwellers oppose resettlement away from their current dwellings.

It is also seeking the Centre’s permission to resettle some of slum dwellers to salt pans, which fall under the no-development zone.

“We are discussing how we can compensate the Centre for the land. It could be in the form of land elsewhere or in the form of floor space index (FSI), which it can use elsewhere,” said the official.

The expansion of the Mumbai airport is stuck owing to the failure of the authorities to clear the land which has been encroached upon by slums and issues pertaining to the rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

Following a legal dispute between MIAL and HDIL, the two companies have gone into arbitration.

Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajpathy Raju had in July 2014 directed that a fresh rehabilitation plan be prepared. Raju has given a nod for in-situ rehabilitation of slum dwellers.

The state government will soon take a decision on the same, Fadnavis said.

Now you decide who is crazy. Is it not us the honest tax paying citizens of India, who have to bear this craziness, of our land and precious public lands which were supposed to be taken care of by these Government organisations, being gifted to these robbers and encroachers?

Hats off to the citizens of Mumbai for our tolerance of this nonsense.