Slum rehab authority not working effectively: High Court

The Bombay High Court observed on that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) schemes are 'not working effectively'.

The Bombay High Court observed on Thursday that the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) schemes are “not working effectively” and asked a high-powered committee to probe 87 complaints received by Anti-Corruption Bureau and other agencies.

The committee,which is already in place following a previous order of the court in SRA-related issue,will take the assistance of Additional Commissioner of Police.

“If the committee finds any illegality or irregularity coupled with “element of criminality”,it can regulate,stay or cancel any SRA scheme,subject to regular court orders,” said the division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice S C Dharmadhikari in the judgement on a PIL.

Under SRA scheme,a builder gets extra Floor Space Index,in return for giving free tenements to slum-dwellers. PIL had been filed by right to information activist (and now an information commissioner) Shailesh Gandhi in 2006.

To a query by Gandhi under RTI Act,Anti-Corruption Bureau had replied that there were 89 complaints regarding SRA schemes,but Bureau lacked the infrastructure to probe them.

Gandhi then moved High Court,seeking a special investigation team for probing the cases following which the court today held that “the system is not working effectively”,looking at the number of cases and the fact that some prima facie material was found in them.

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