Overview
- Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule told the state assembly on Thursday that the cabinet has approved a policy to protect all slum structures built before January 1, 2011 on state, forest and other government lands.
- A high-level committee under the Konkan Divisional Commissioner, including the Mumbai city and suburban collectors, has begun fieldwork and will finish a statewide biometric and physical verification of eligible residents within three months.
- The government says eligible families will be rehoused through the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), MHADA, CIDCO or other government housing schemes rather than being regularised on protected land.
- Officials say many settlements sit on mangroves, forest land, nazul plots, revenue land or CIDCO land where in-situ regularisation is barred by development rules, eco-sensitive zone rules or forest laws, so the master plan will map alternative housing sites.
- The plan could free and restore environmentally sensitive areas but its outcomes depend on survey results, inter-agency coordination, housing availability and environmental clearances, so timelines, scale and costs remain to be worked out.