Govt to lease land to slum dwellers for next 30 years

MUMBAI: To facilitate the building of affordable houses under Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) in 382 towns across Maharashtra, the state government on Tuesday decided to empower urban administrations to lease ownership to slum-dwellers for 30 years. This amendment within existing laws will not be applicable to Mumbai and will help in regularising hutments and houses built illegally on land owned by the government and urban local bodies.

“One of the key conditions for the eligibility of funding under PMAY is the ownership of the land earmarked for the house. In many cases, the applicants were found to be occupying a house or hutment on encroached land,” said an official from the urban development department.

“Structures and slums built before January 1, 1995, have been declared legal, despite being encroachments. In accordance with the decision, the land will be given to the occupant on a 30-year lease to make the person eligible for the PMAY housing.”

The decision will also enable transfer of areas reserved as cattle-grazing land, nazul land in the municipal council, nagar panchayats and municipal corporations.

Similarly, the revenue department will also tweak its laws to transfer ownership rights to slum-dwellers on government land.

So far, Maharashtra has built 250,000 houses under PMAY with the Centre granting ₹1.2 lakh to build a housing unit and an additional ₹30,000 per toilet. The government has set a target of completing an extra 450,000 houses by December and has requested the Centre to assist with building 600,000 more to meet the rising demand.