Housing min meets MHADA officials over allotments

Flak over the allotments of low-cost flats to legislators who submitted false documents, prompted Minister of State for Housing, Sachin Ahir, took a review meeting with officials of MHADA at the agency’s Bandra office on Saturday, reports HT Correspondent.

Flak over the allotments of low-cost flats to legislators who submitted false documents, prompted Minister of State for Housing, Sachin Ahir, took a review meeting with officials of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) at the agency’s Bandra office on Saturday.

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He instructed the officials to conduct a thorough scrutiny of the affidavits submitted by the legislators to MHADA. “I have asked the officials to check the documents properly and submit the entire report to the state government,” said Ahir.

Several legislators, to qualify for a MHADA house, have allegedly submitted affidavits falsely claiming that neither they nor their spouses own houses in Mumbai. Ahir, however, said it was not possible to verify all the information submitted by the legislators.

“We are ready to even cancel allotments of those who submitted false claims but people should complain or submit proof of that,” he said.

He said some ministers such as Home Minister R.R. Patil and Higher Education Minister Rajesh Tope had not applied for a house under the scheme but had their names in the final list. Ahir has asked MHADA officials to investigate this.

The issue has been controversial since many legislators had applied for homes in the city though they have own houses in the municipal limits of the city, which is not allowed under the scheme. An NGO filed a public interest litigation on Friday questioning the procedure of allotting houses and favouring legislators.