Twenty per cent of the housing stock in the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) projects could be reserved for police constables and Class 4 government employees, state housing minister Jitendra Awhad said on Friday. The proposal will soon be tabled before the state cabinet for approval.
“We want 10% reservation for police constables and 10% for Class 4 employees of the government in the housing stock of Mhada henceforth. I will send the proposal to the cabinet soon,” Awhad said, speaking to reporters in Mantralaya.
In a push to a long-delayed redevelopment of police housing society in Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar in Ghatkopar East, Awhad said chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar will carry out the bhoomipujan in the next 15 days.
As the housing authority is exhausting its land bank, the minister said Mhada will venture into redeveloping buildings on its land. “Mhada is a builder. It will give corpus fund [to the society] and redevelop buildings. We are still reviewing this decision, but I am positive about it, as Mhada is a profit-making organisation. If other [builders] are going to make crores [through redevelopment] on our land, why shouldn’t the government do it? We are studying the idea,” he said.
Awhad said he was “pro-builder”, as affordable houses won’t be built until their concerns are resolved. “Thackeray and Pawar will meet the heads of State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, and Bank of Baroda and officials of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on January 27. We are looking at measures to give a boost to the real estate sector which is ailing. We are also seeing if there can be any reservations on government land in Mumbai and Thane to create affordable housing,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}Awhad said he was “pro-builder”, as affordable houses won’t be built until their concerns are resolved. “Thackeray and Pawar will meet the heads of State Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, and Bank of Baroda and officials of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on January 27. We are looking at measures to give a boost to the real estate sector which is ailing. We are also seeing if there can be any reservations on government land in Mumbai and Thane to create affordable housing,” the minister said.
{{/usCountry}}Awhad, who reviewed the Patra Chawl redevelopment project which is stuck for the past 12 years, said the state intends to disallow the practice of ‘forward trading’. “In this case, one [builder] took over the project and sold it in pieces. Such forward trading will not be allowed henceforth,” he said.
To make sure projects do not get stuck, Mhada will now study the agreement between the society and the builder.
It will look at the financial stability of the builder before giving approval.