Congress and ally seek votes in Mumbai slums

Mumbai: With barely a week to go for civic elections in Mumbai, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), its partner in Maharashtra's ruling alliance, have banded together to woo slum dwellers, promising to provide and protect tenements through a slew of concessions in a joint manifesto announced yesterday.

For the alliance partners, it is a now-or-never situation to wrest control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which has been under the sway of the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the last 17 years.

Both Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar of the NCP were present at the release of the manifesto yesterday along with a large number of ministers, party leaders and other political representatives.

Chavan said: "Our vision for Mumbai is to make it into a liveable city. In a recent economic liveability index study, Mumbai fared very badly — being ranked 117 among 134 cities. We want the city to grow in all sectors."

The Congress-NCP alliance insists it can restore Mumbai's truly global status by ending the misrule of the Shiv Sena and BJP.

Promises galore

The joint manifesto promises among other things the regularisation of slums built until December 31, 2000.

Also, residents of the slums since the pre-1995 period who have still not received their photo ID cards are being promised the same within three months.

The Congress and the NCP also say that a new civic body will push for a realignment of the Coastal Regulation Zone to allow for slum settlements within 100 metres of the coast in areas stretching from Colaba to Versova instead of a limit of 500 metres set currently.

If elected, the Congress and the NCP, along with the People's Republican Party and Republican Party of India, have also committed to convincing the Maharashtra government to allow the rehabilitation of 30,000-40,000 homes that currently stand on forest department land. Slums apart, old and dilapidated buildings in the western and eastern suburbs will also get permission for redevelopment.

There are promises galore of better roads, transport, garbage disposal and public health, completion of various infrastructure projects, water supply to every home, improvement of standards in BMC schools, parking zones for all and improved access to parks and playgrounds.