Ahead of BMC Elections, BJP shifts its focus to slums

With just a few months to go for the BMC Polls 2017, the Bhartiya Janata Party has shifted its focus to slum revelopment. A group of senior leaders from Mumbai called up the Union Ministers in Delhi to speeden up the redevelopment of slums along the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on Railway land, and on land owned by the Bombay Port Trust.

 

Ashish Shelar, Mumbai BJP chief, who led this delegation told the Central Government to ease buffer zone norms around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Presently, there are restrictions on development activity around 10 kilometer area of the park. But the BJP delegation claimed that these have stalled redevelopment of 25 lakh slum families and also old buildings in the suburbs of Mumbai. It requested the Centre to lift restrictions for all areas beyond 100 meters of the National Park. The delegation held deliberations with Union Environment Minister Anil Dave in this regard.

 

A demand to formulate a policy for slums existing pre-2000 on railway land was made before Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu. About 12 lakh slum families reside on Railway land.