Mill workers demand houses

Demanding that families of all former textile mill workers in Mumbai get houses,the protesters gathered at Azad Maidan on Tuesday said that Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan should keep his promise of finding land for 40,000-odd homes. The protest was organised by Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti.

Praveen Ghag of the textile workers’ organisation said the excuse that land is unavailable to build houses for mill workers is unacceptable. “There is land owned by the MMRDA. The NTC owns 190 acres of land and another 700 to 800 acres belong to the government agencies. Just the NTC land with FSI of 3 or 4 is sufficient to tackle the problem,” Ghag said.

Stating that Chavan had not kept his promise of discussing the issue at the winter session of the state Legislative Assembly,Ghag said the earlier formula of dividing the land from defunct mills would have given a third of the total land to BMC and MHADA,to be used to house millworkers.