AIRPORT SLUM REHAB ON CARDS

Meanwhile in the Council, Fadnavis said that slum dwellers staying around the airport will be rehabilitated in a radius of two to three kilometres of their present place of stay. A survey being conducted for this purpose is likely to be completed by October this year.

The matter was raised in the state council during a calling attention motion moved by Congress MLC Janardhan Chandurkar who said the slum dwellers had been told that they would be rehabilitated on an area of 100 acres of land. However, the exact place where the slum dwellers would be located had not been made clear and this had led to a sense of uncertainty among the people. Despite several efforts to get some clarity on this issue, there was no proper response from the administration.

Responding to this, the CM said the airport is a sensitive area and hence it is important to remove any kind of encroachment from that region. Towards this end, the administration is in the process of carrying out a survey of 14 out of a total of 35 slum pockets on a priority basis. This will help to decide which slum dwellers fit into the criteria for getting rehabilitated, he said.

The state government is going to make all efforts to rehabilitate the slum dwellers in the same area as far as possible, the CM said. However, this will depend on the number of slum dwellers who fit the criteria and the area available for the purpose of rehabilitation.

Around 18,000 houses are reported to have been constructed and the slum dwellers will be shifted there once the survey work is completed, sources said. Also, the survey will help to fix the exact number of slum dwellers that have to be rehabilitated under this scheme and ensure that there is no fresh encroachment near the airport.