Athawale proposes rehabilitation of slums on Railways’ land

The Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment, Ramdas Athawale, on Thursday proposed rehabilitation of around 8,923 slums on land owned by Central Railway and Western Railway. Under the proposal, around 137 acres of land will have to be transferred from the Railways to the state government.

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In a press conference, Athawale said, “In a recent meeting with Union railway minister Piyush Goyal, I had requested him to hand over around 137 acres of land from Western and Central Railway to the state government so that 8,923 slums could be redeveloped like SRA [Slum Rehabilitation Authority] scheme.”

Athawale held a meeting with CR and WR officers and collected information about the exact number of slum encroachment on respective Railway land. Around 45 acres of land from WR and 92 acres of land from CR would be required for the development.

“We will request the state government to purchase land from the Railways. And we will construct houses with any builder’s help,” Athawale said.

Athawale also proposed to develop 308 acres of land near the airport where around 14,500 illegal slums were registered in a survey conducted by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).

In another meeting with the heads of the different corporations, it was found that loans of these corporations mounted to ₹1,275 crores. Hence Athawale requested the government to waive this amount as these corporations were working for the benefit of weaker sections of the society.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party Of India (RPI) has organised a statewide march to support the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) on January 10. Under the march, all district units of RPI would take part in a rally to raise awareness on CAA.