CM launches poll drive at MHADA function

MUMBAI, MAY 27: It was as good an election plank as any. Chief Minsiter Narayan Rane inaugurated 5,000 houses built by B G Shire for the ...

MUMBAI, MAY 27: It was as good an election plank as any. Chief Minsiter Narayan Rane inaugurated 5,000 houses built by B G Shire for the Maharashtra Area and Housing Development Authority MHADA at Mankhurd PMPG Colony today and launched off on a veritable campaign speech, letting everyone in the big crowd know that only his government was keeping its promises to the people, the Congress regime never had.

8220;We are offering free houses to slumdwellers and fulfilling Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray8217;s promises. In fact, it was Thackeray who had given the idea of the free housing scheme to the former chief minister Sharad Pawar. But Pawar failed to implement the scheme thinking that the credit would probably go to Thackeray. But today, we will be giving many of these houses as transit camp accommodation and thereby moving closer to fulfilling the scheme,8221; the CM said.

8220;We have not only thought about housing for the poor but also about the traffic and road conditions. Where the Congress failed to improve theroad conditions, we have commissioned 55 flyovers, of which many are ready. We have also improved the road network in most of the 43,000 villages in Maharashtra,8221; he said. The alliance government dreamed to see a tanker-free Maharashtra by 2000, for which it had already sanctioned Rs 1000 crore, the CM added.

Earlier, Housing Minister Sureshdada Jain appealed to the Chief Minister to give more land for the SRD scheme, adding that shortage of land was the only hindrance to the completion of the scheme. He also suggested that the free sale tenements at Mankhurd should be priced at Rs 1,200 per sq ft and not at Rs 1,500 per sq ft as proposed by MHADA.

When asked, MHADA vice-president Gorakh Megh agreed to the suggestion on the price cut. MHADA had in December 1997 given the contract to construct 5,000 houses as part of the first phase of the total of 10,000 houses to BG Shirke, to be completed on June 18, 1999. Shirke, however, completed the work a month in advance and even promised the government that ifthey went into a joint venture, he could build 30,000 houses with a pre-fab technology.