The Pune Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) initiated a survey of the Patil Estate slums off the Pune-Mumbai highway in Shivajinagar in October 2021. However, due to a lack of response from slum dwellers, the survey has been halted.
In November 2018, Patil Estate slums were destroyed in a fire that broke out in the hutment. The slums are located on the banks of the Mula river and in the incident out of 1,200 houses, around 100 slums were completely gutted in the fire.
According to College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) officials, the land was allotted to the college in the late 1980s for education purposes, but it could not be utilised due to encroachment. At that time, there were around 250 slums. The state gave assurance to remove the slums but it did not happen. Now, the slum has reached more than 2,000 as per the survey conducted by Maharashtra Social Housing And Action League (MASHAL), a non-government organisation.
CoEP approached the high court in 2018 to prove the ownership. The court has also given a decision in 2021 that the land belongs to CoEP and they can initiate SRA projects on the land. The state education department also issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to CoEP.
{{/usCountry}}CoEP approached the high court in 2018 to prove the ownership. The court has also given a decision in 2021 that the land belongs to CoEP and they can initiate SRA projects on the land. The state education department also issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to CoEP.
{{/usCountry}}DN Sonawane, registrar of CoEP, said, “Nothing has happened on the SRA scheme on Patil estate slums. We are going slow on the matter.”
Vaishali Idani-Untwal, additional collector of Pune SRA, said, “We couldn’t complete the survey as slum dwellers are not cooperating with our officials. We even counselled them and appealed to fill out the forms. However, no one is coming forward.”
The SRA was established by the state government to improve slums and provide free-of-cost better housing to slum dwellers through plot development, which is carried out in collaboration with private builders.
After that, CoEP sent a letter to Pune SRA to carry out the scheme on the land. Based on that, the SRA office started a survey in October 2021. However, the scheme is still on paper due to the non-cooperation of slum dwellers.
As per the CoEP plan, they will float tenders to attract builders, who will bring down the units. The land will be divided into three parts for SRA units, a CoEP building and the rest will be used by the builders for commercial purposes.