No-clearance CM

Prithviraj Chavan,till last November the dynamic,reformist minister of state at the prime ministers office,took over as chief minister of Maharashtra under tough circumstances. His predecessor,Ashok Chavan,was forced out under a cloud,and the Maharashtra Congress seemed enveloped in a cloud of double-dealing and incompetence. The new CM,it was expected,would clear the air,end the extractive politics of the state Congress and try to give Maharashtra a government that worked effectively,something that under-performing state has been denied for quite some time now. It is very distressing,therefore,that it does not seem to be working out that way. As a report in this newspaper on Saturday makes sadly clear,work on Mumbais redevelopment has ground to a halt,with clearance after clearance waiting to be given. And this cannot be blamed on a dilatory institutional structure alone; these are decisions that require the CMs own nod,and his is the office that has been holding them up.

What sort of projects is Chavan delaying? A large number of them are to create affordable housing in Mumbai,which is that citys greatest need. Its explosive growth and the aspirations of those who want a place of their own,have combined with archaic land,rental and building regulations to keep real estate expensive,turning Mumbai into a city of the underhoused,of slum-dwellers and exhausted commuters. Redevelopment of older buildings should be a priority,as should the development of complexes of cheaper housing on the margins,and the provision of infrastructure and upgrading of its slums. Yet these are precisely the projects that the CM is delaying: for example,a panel set up to examine the redevelopment of pre-1960s cessed buildings cleared more than two dozen projects,none of which have been processed under Chavan. Nor has a local authority plan to move ahead on 43 affordable-housing projects in the suburbs met with approval yet.

Chavan cannot blame another ministry: he holds the housing and urban development portfolios,too. His reasons are telling: he feels that it is necessary to see,in each case,whether the concerns of the city or of some private person are involved. This might be an understandable concern,given todays political climate,and its random mudslinging. Yet Chavan was sent to Mumbai to get the city and the state it leads moving. That cannot happen if he persists in clearing everything himself. Good governance will need the restoration of independent,transparent institutions. Decentralising project-sanctioning powers would be a good start.