MUMBAI: Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) officials, with the help of local police, have evicted 112 illegal occupants residing in Milansar society in Andheri West‘s Juhu Galli since the last 10 years and have handed over the keys for the slum rehabilitation component flats to the original eligible slumdwellers.
According to SRA officials, the slum rehabilitation component buildings were ready nearly a decade ago, but even before the flats could be allotted to eligible slumdwellers, they were occupied by the encroachers. The standard size for slum rehabilitation units is 300 sq ft.
Local BJP MLA Ameet Satam, who pushed the SRA for the eviction of the illegal occupants, said that encroachers had seized the 112 flats in Milansar SRA Society around 2014. “Local political mafia were behind this illegal occupation of the flats for their nefarious gains.
The rightful owners were rendered homeless and had been living in pathetic conditions without any financial assistance. The issue was taken up with SRA, police, and other agencies concerned to ensure the eviction of the illegal occupants. Now, the 112 flats are being handed over to their original owners,” Satam said.
Aftab Ahmed Khan, one of the victims of the illegal occupation of the SRA units, said they had approached Satam with their grievances. “We were fighting without any solution in sight. It was only after we approached Satam that things started moving at the govt level. Satam consistently raised our cause and followed up with the authorities,” Khan said.
Last year, Bombay high court had said that it is time to vest SRA and state govt with summary powers — even if “draconian” — to evict unauthorised occupants of SRA flats, as it raised concerns over illegal transfers and “trafficking in rehab tenements”.
As per a 2018 report, close to 40% SRA units were found to be occupied by illegal tenants. The survey was conducted by a committee headed by the then additional collector.
The committee surveyed 86,429 tenements in various SRA buildings, of which 30,564 were prima facie illegal occupants. “People often rent out the houses they get under the SRA scheme or they sell the flats to a third person. In some cases, they are occupied forcibly by local mafia who then rent them out,” claimed an official.
