Authorities pass the buck over allotment of permanent homes to 160 families

Nearly 160 families are in a fix owing to the lack of coordination between two government bodies over allotment of permanent houses in a slum rehabilitation scheme.

Moreover, the authorities are now passing the buck on each other, not taking the responsibility of initiating action against the unauthorised occupants.

Residents who were denied permanent houses alleged that the developer in connivance with SRA officials sold flats to 115 unauthorised occupants on forged documents. The Deputy Collector said that he is awaiting a report from the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) on the unauthorised occupants, whereas SRA officials have denied taking any responsibility for evicting the ineligible residents of the Rs 450-crore project.

SRA officials and the Deputy Collector have only a fortnight to expel 115 unauthorised occupants on one of their projects at Ghatkopar. The authorities have failed to even initiate the eviction process.

The 160 slum dwellers had approached the Lokayukta of Maharashtra seeking urgent intervention when the authorities allegedly carried out irregularities in preparing a list of eligible beneficiaries.

The Lokayukta had directed the SRA officials and the Deputy collector in April, to expel the unauthorised occupants and house the original slum dwellers within three months.

The Free Press Journal was the first to report that the project was bagged by Rockline Constructions in which the SRA CEO Vishwas Patil’s wife is a shareholder. With the authority’s inability to take any action against the unauthorised occupants, there are some slum dwellers who were first-term eligible occupants.

Their houses were demolished by the developer but were denied flats in the project.

Abdul Latif Shaikh, resident of the slum, alleged that he stopped receiving cheques suddenly in 2013 from the developer. This amount was for paying his rent for the temporary house.

“I have seven authorised houses in the slum for which the developer promised us and we are eligible for this project. Despite several assurances, the developer first demolished our houses and initially paid the rental charges of our temporary house for few months and suddenly stopped. He defended saying that he cannot continue giving us money for the rent and the SRA will now issue further payments to the eligible slum dwellers.”

Currently, the slum dwellers are left to fend for themselves and have lost on all fronts, as they have no roof over their heads.