Residents of the Sion GTB Punjabi Refugee Colony are finally seeing a ray of hope for the long-pending redevelopment of their colony.
Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad held a meeting with officials and residents at his Shivgad bungalow opposite Mantralaya on April 26, 2022, to discuss the redevelopment of buildings that had been declared dangerous by the Brihan-Mumbai Municipal Corporation three years ago.
A resident, Sunil Vijan, who was present at the meeting, said, “We are hopeful that some positive action will be taken by this government. We have been living in a rented house and cannot bear the rent expenses anymore. We want the government to appoint MHADA to carry out redevelopment of our buildings.”
Vijan said that the BMC had finally issued demolition notices but some issues need to be addressed first. “There has been no demarcation done. Secondly, if these buildings are demolished, how can we point out later where our building stood. Most importantly, the BMC has been issuing certificates only to the first owner. Several people sold their property but the BMC doesn’t have fresh records. Therefore, only after resolving this issue should demolition be taken up.”
The Free Press Journal had earlier reported how the people of Punjabi Colony are in extreme distress, finding themselves virtually homeless. The pandemic-induced lockdown had affected their source of livelihood - taxi-driving - in the last two years.
Most importantly, the Punjabi families here had put their hard-earned money (savings) in the PMC Bank, which was on the verge of failure when the RBI superseded the board of PMC Bank and placed it under regulatory restrictions in September 2019, set limits on cash withdrawals and began investigating its accounting lapses.
Whereas, Purshottam Redekar,an empanelled architect of MHADA who was also part of meeting with Minister said that MHADA can be the right agency to carry out this redevelopment project. He said, "The residents of these buildings need to pass a proposal in their society meeting that they want to appoint MHADA for their redevelopment project. Once it is done we can process."
Meanwhile, he also insisted that only government agency like MHADA can carry out this redevelopment project easily because though the building conveyance deed is on society's ownership however, the other nearby land is of government. Therefore cluster redevelopment is the viable option for Punjabi Colony.
"The land belongs to collector's office and the minister has already asked both agencies MHADA and collector to coordinate and expedite the process so the redevelopment of this colony can be taken up. The proposal can either be handled mutually by these two authorities or it can be tabled in cabinet meeting for approval," he said.
While another resident of Punjabi Colony stated that these colony was built for people like us as they were the refugees, who came to India from Pakistan during partition. Now they need to provide their Sanat certificate to prove their ownership rights.
He explained, "several people however, have not taken their sanat. Moreover, to get sanat one has to submit the refugee certificate wherein they are required to pay 4 per cent of penalty on ready reckoner rate. While those who have no refugees document, they are termed as non-refugees and charged 20 percent penalty on ready reckoner rate to get the sanat certificate. As per today's market value the RR rates are high in Sion which is part of the Island city. How a common man like me who's livelihood on taxi driving can pay so much of money? Government should provide some relaxation along with expediting the redevelopment of our colony."
