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CM nod to 10% quota for cops, Class 4 staff
Ten days after state housing minister Jitendra Awhad announced allotting 10% houses under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) in Thane,
Ten days after state housing minister Jitendra Awhad announced allotting 10% houses under the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada) in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan, for police constables and Class 4 government employees, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray gave a go-ahead to the move.
Thackeray directed Awhad to make a policy to allot 10% homes to police and Class 4 employees under all government housing schemes.
He was addressing a gathering in Thane during the inauguration of developmental projects in the city.
State urban development minister Eknath Shinde demanded that a separate authority for SRA schemes be set up only for Mumbai Metropolitan Region of Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli and Mira-Bhayander and the beneficiaries should get flat of 300 square feet equivalent to that in Mumbai instead of the present 269 sqft home.
Thackeray was visiting Thane for the first time after becoming the chief minister. He asked residents to demand whatever they want for the city and he will grant their wish.
He said, “While implementing cluster scheme for Thane, I am also giving orders to Awhad to speed up the policy of reserving 10% homes for police employees and Class 4 employees of the state in the MMR region. These homes can be from any of the state affordable housing scheme.”
Last month, Awhad had announced that the government would soon make changes in the state’s housing policy and get the cabinet approval to facilitate 20% reservations for constables and government employees in Mhada.
The state is likely to reserve more than 1,800 of 9,140 flats constructed by Mhada at Thane, Navi Mumbai and Kalyan, under this scheme.
Shinde said, “It is important to ensure that those residing in dangerous building in MMR are not left out of housing schemes. The police quarters in Thane is also dilapidated and the employees should be given affordable homes too. Moreover, SRA scheme in MMR should be equivalent to that in Mumbai. There should be a separate authority for SRA schemes in the MMR.”
The CM said the issue of dangerous and illegal buildings in MMR will be resolved soon.
Awhad demanded that the cluster scheme in Mumbra and Diva take off soon as incidents of building collapses are more in Mumbra.
He added: “We have a huge land in Kalwa, near Parsik, which can be converted into a bird sanctuary.”
The projects for which the chief minister performed `Bhoomi Poojan’ (ground breaking ceremony) included a memorial of his father and Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and six cluster development projects.
Opposition BJP boycotted the function as a protest for not inviting former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
Local Congress leaders, who had expressed reservations about the cluster development scheme, also remained absent
‘Thane progressed better than Mumbai’
Uddhav Thackeray praised Thane Municipal Corporation and the elected representatives for the pace of development.
He said, “Forests in the cities are rapidly diminishing but Thane civic body is developing new urban jungles. Thane has taken so many varied developmental projects that I will tell Mumbai civic commissioner to visit Thane and see the development. Thane has developed more than Mumbai in the past few years and I will sanction whatever developmental project the city approaches me with.”
