No allocation of flats in Mumbai from CMs discretionary quota for four years
16 Oct, 2014Whenever the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada), constructs a housing block, two per cent of total flats are handed over to the chief minister for allotment to those in need after verification of the eligibility criteria of the allottees.Reply to an application filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act has revealed that the former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan had stopped allotting flats from this quota to beneficiaries resulting into piling up of unallocated flats to the tune of 62,993 square feet of constructed space. The value of the unallocated 198 flats in the Mumbai board of the Mhada amounts to nearly Rs 42 crores. These flats are located in areas like Malvani, Mankhurd, Kandivali, Tunga village Powai, Vinoba Bhave Nagar-Kurla etc and include flats for different economic group such as the Economically Weaker Section (EWS), lower, middle and high income groups.
The intense scrutiny of the discretionary allocation of flats under the CM’s quota is said to be the reason for non-ustilisation of the powers by the former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for the last four years. Disuse of power is as good as misuse of the power. It is time to either go away with the discretionary quota of the CM or evolve transparent guidelines for the allotment of the discretion. It makes little sense to keep the flats vacant while the housing problem remains acute in Mumbai.