2,417 houses allotted to former mill workers in Mumbai

Kadam was lucky as 1.38 lakh former mill workers had applied for just 2,417 houses, constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in Panvel.

Dilip Sopan Kadam could not believe it as his late father’s name was announced as the winner of a 320 square foot house in a lottery on Friday.

Mill workers and their relatives check their names in MHADA lottery list at Hotel Rangsharda, Bandra, on Friday. (Pratham Gokhale/HT PHOTO)

Kadam was lucky as 1.38 lakh former mill workers had applied for just 2,417 houses, constructed by the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) in Panvel.

According to Dilip, his father had worked for 28 years in India United Mills No 2, before losing his job in the infamous 1982 textile strike.

“My father shifted to his village and died of paralysis the very next year. We faced hard times as kids. But today, we feel that finally there is some light at the end of the tunnel,” said Dilip.

Similar is the view of Anandi Vishram Mochemadkar, whose husband Vishram was the employee of Morarjee Mills. The couple has been applying for low cost MHADA houses for many years. “Finally my husband and I can live in our own house in the city,” said Mochemadkar.

According to state housing minister Prakash Mehta, the government is speeding up allocation of houses to mill workers.

“This is the second such lottery this year and we have allotted houses to 5,500 mill workers,” he said.

This is a part of the government scheme which aims to provide affordable houses to the textile mill workers.

Textile mills were an integral part of the city which employed more than 2.5 lakh workers.

However, the 1982 textile mills workers strike led by union leader Datta Samant served a death blow to the sector, leaving lakhs jobless.