Cuts allotments of flats for high and middle-income citizens by 80 per cent in favour of more houses for the poor
Cuts allotments of flats for high and middle-income citizens by 80 per cent in favour of more houses for the poor
The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), a government body that provides low-cost housing in the state, has in a complete turnaround, reduced its housing allotment for the middle-income group (MIG) and the high-income group (HIG) from 60 per cent in January to 12 per cent
this month.
The low-income group is to benefit from the MHADA's move.
On December 15, at least 3,357 houses will be up and ready, but of these more than 2,962 houses are reserved for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and the lower-income group (LIG).
The rest of the 395 flats remain reserved for the MIG and HIG. Of this, 166 HIG houses are in Versova, 28 HIG flats in Ghatkopar, 56 in Dahisar and 11 in Pratiksha Nagar, Sion.
Why it was done
Said Amarjeet Singh Manhas, chairman, Mumbai MHADA board, "The demand for EWS and LIG houses is very high.
Hence, during this lottery (applications forms will be available from December 15 and the selection through lottery will take place in the next five months) there won't be many MIG or HIG houses.
The demand for MHADA flats is more from the lower economic segments.
Hence, the increase in the number of those houses. In the last lottery, we had more than 1 lakh applicants from the lower groups," said Manhas, who did not have corresponding figures for the HIG and MIG houses.
However, sources from MHADA claim that the applications for Versova HIG flats were among the highest.
"There were more than a lakh applicants who had opted for the 900 HIG houses at Versova and other areas, so the justification of having more EWS and LIG houses is not valid," said a MHADA insider.
Experts say
Experts, on the contrary, believe that MHADA should continue to construct houses for the middle and the upper middle classes.
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"The lower- income groups anyway get houses for free thanks to the Slum Redevelopment Author-ity," said Ajay Chaturvedi a real estate expert.
Said another expert, "Consider this a 900 sq ft MHADA house in Versova costs Rs 56 lakh, whereas the market value is close to a crore.
So, obviously, the number of applicants for a HIG MHADA flat would be sizeable."
Ankeet Dave, a media consultant, who falls in the HIG, added, "MHADA flats are cheap and the locations are good, and so is the quality. People from all strata should get equal opportunities.
The MHADA should build the same number of houses for the MIG and HIG categories."
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4.74 Lakh
Number of citizens who submitted applications for MHADA flats this year
2,400
Number of passes issued by MHADA for applicants who wished to see the lottery that would select citizens who would get flats
3,863
Number of lucky applicants who were to get subsidised MHADA flats in the lottery that opened in May
1948
Year in which MHADA was established
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