Mumbai: People living in transit camps for 30 years; redevelopment pending for decades

People have been living in transit camps for 30 years, and their houses have been in construction mode for decades. Currently, about 22,000 families live in transit camps, of which 50 per cent are more than 10,000 infiltrators.
ankit salvi mumbai mirror.

People living in transit camps for 30 years.

Photo : BCCL
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
  • 22,000 families live in transit camps
  • There is no time limit to redeveloping cessed buildings by the MHADA board.
  • There are more than 10,000 infiltrators in the transit camp.
By Ankit Salve.
Mumbai: People have been living in transit camps for 30 years, and their houses have been in construction mode for decades in India's financial capital Mumbai. The number of infiltrators is also increasing day by day.
Currently, about 22,000 families live in transit camps, of which 50 per cent are more than 10,000 infiltrators. There is still no certainty when they will be resettled in their original homes.
A transition camp is arranged through the Mumbai Building Repair and Reconstruction Board (MBRRB) of Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority (MHADA) for the residents of old cessed and dilapidated buildings. Transit camps are an alternative to temporary accommodation, but Hundreds of families are stuck in transit camps for years.
Families from the original cessed buildings in South and Central Mumbai are forced to live in tiny houses in suburban transit camps.
Abhijit Pethe, President of Transit Camp Association, filed a Public Interest Litigation a few years ago, taking the stand that it is unfair to deny the rights of the natives. He has taken up the demand of MHADA Mandal to provide a list of how many people have been given houses till now.
Some centres are in the worst condition among the transit camps in various parts of Mumbai. As there is no option but to live in those camps, many families are living out of necessity.
MHADA's MBRRB is expected to redevelop the old, cessed buildings and provide houses to the native children. However, it has become clear that brokers have a massive amount of interference in all these processes. With the connivance of some corrupt officials, staff, and brokers of the MHADA board, the residents living in the transit camp have been afforded.
The state government announced the Abhay Yojana for them a few years ago. The number of available houses in camps is also decreasing due to the infiltrators taking possession of the house in the transit camps through illegal means.
Chairman of the board, Vinod Ghosalkar, opined that through the transit camp's redevelopment, the camp's families would get their rightful houses.
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