Officials said the forms will be distributed immediately after Diwali
Mhada has offered 6,300 flats at Shirdon and Kon. Around 12,000 households (both tribal and non-tribal) from Goregaon to Dahisar (south division) and around 5,200 in SGNP’s Yeoor region have been found to be eligible for rehabilitation. Relocation and rehabilitation have been taken up once again as Bombay HC’s 1997 order was not fully implemented. Based on the 1997 order, SGNP authorities had identified both tribals and non-tribals as encroachers. Govt announced that tribals would be rehabilitated on 90 acres in Aarey Colony, but they refused to be identified as encroachers, pointing out that the area was their home even before it was declared a forest. Tribals held massive protests in Jan this year demanding the implementation of Forest Rights Act, following which govt stayed the eviction of non-tribals and tribals who had already been rehabilitated in phase 1.
“Only those willing to relocate to Kalyan who sign the consent forms will be shifted there,” said Anita Patil, director and chief conservator of forests, SGNP. Officials said the forms will be distributed immediately after Diwali. SGNP authorities said the original SGNP tribals had been relocated to Palghar in the late ‘70s and the early ‘80s but many returned owing to lack of job opportunities there.
After a contempt petition was filed, the court took up the matter once more and even set up a high-power committee to oversee the task.
Former BJP MP Gopal Shetty had even suggested that they be rehabilitated on a 10-acre BMC plot at Kandarpada in Dahisar. “Their argument is that the flat in Kalyan costs Rs 15 lakh while their hut in Mumbai would fetch Rs 50 lakh. They want govt to pay the difference. ” Former MLC Vidya Chavan from NCP, who has been working among slumdwellers in the Malad-Kandivli belt, said there are at least 6,000 flats meant for project-affected persons in Mumbai, which can be given to the slumdwellers.
Shetty had said residents had demanded that they be paid the difference in price for their huts. “Our party workers have identified several PAP flats, including two entire buildings.” There has been stiff opposition to relocation to far-flung areas among slumdwellers, too.