New Delhi, Dec 02: In keeping with the Prime Minister's Independence Day announcement to make Mumbai a slum-free city, the group of ministers on Salt Pan Lands today cleared the proposal to rehabilitate 42,000 slum dwellers and asked the Urban Development Ministry to place it before the cabinet within a month for its approval. The meeting, which was attended by Civil Aviation Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Labour Minister Sahib Singh Verma, Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley and Urban Development Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and chaired by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant approved the relocation of 42,000 slum dwellers in Kanjur village in Mumbai in the first phase.
Sources said the central government's focus would be on relocating the slums near the Santa Cruz airport to facilitate the modernisation and airport expansion programme.
With plans to launch the rehabilitaion programme before January 26 and expedite the progress, pant, along with Rudy and Dattatreya would hold a meeting with Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde tomorrow and ask him to issue a notification for transfer of 45 hectare land under the non-developmental zone (NDZ) for relocation of the slum dwellers.
Bureau Report