The Slum Rehabilitation Authority(SRA) should be made a single competent authority to prepare annexure of eligible slum dwellers. A proposal on same has been put before the state housing department which is at consideration stage, told SRA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Satish Lokhande on Monday to the Free Press Journal's reporter.
At present, depending on the ownership of the land where the slums have spread, the annexure of eligible dwellers is prepared by the said competent authority. Meaning, if the land belongs to BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the annexure is prepared by them, and if it's of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority(MMRDA), Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) then they prepare it and so on.
Lokhande expressed that at present the process of annexure preparation is complicated following the involvement of multiple agencies. "If the job is authorised to a single authority it will become much more easier and the process will simplify. We are planning to introduce an 'auto annexure' system so that through the online available database with us the eligibility will be approved."
To make the entire process possible, SRA has planned to appoint multiple agencies to do biometric of slum clusters spread across Mumbai. Besides, they will also gather other data like from discom companies -- Adani, TATA, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, MSEB, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply Transport (BEST) among others they will confirm the structure existence and ownership of the said slum dweller, along with data from election commission and Aadhar details will be put in the system. So if redevelopment of a particular slum cluster is planned in near future, with the new system in place SRA with available data can prepare the annexure list of beneficiaries.
In Mumbai, there are about 20 lakh hutments. Of which 4.5 lakh hutments lidar survey has already been completed. However, with the advancement in technology, SRA intends to carry out a biometric survey of remaining hutments through multiple agencies in order to expedite the mapping process.
Commenting on the said subject, Anand Gupta, chairperson, Housing and Rera committee Of BAI said, "It is a welcome move. Also, similar to BMC, MMRDA, MHADA, SRA is also a government-run agency and if it is been allowed to prepare annexure there should not be a problem. If the process is brought under a single competent authority unnecessary wastage of time on non-productive things can be prevented. The annexure preparation can be made in a time-bound manner."
