Eligible SGNP slum residents to be rehabilitated in Thane district: State to HC | Mumbai news
MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government will rehabilitate eligible slum residents who are being evicted from the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) in Thane district, the Bombay High Court was told last week.
The Thane district collector has identified around 290 hectares (722 acres) of land to construct tenements for the eligible slum dwellers in villages in Thane, Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ambernath, Shahapur, and Murbad talukas, the state government said in an affidavit filed in the high court. The concerned authorities have been ordered to complete the requisite formalities in 60 days, the affidavit added.
Last month, the court had asked the state government to identify land to construct the rehabilitation tenements after being told it wasn’t possible in Aarey Colony, where tribal families living in SGNP have been relocated. In response, the state government said in its affidavit that the collectors of Mumbai city, Mumbai suburban, Thane, Palghar and Raigad were asked to identify land in their districts.
According to the affidavit, the collectors of Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban districts reported that a plot of land measuring 90 acres or more was not available for rehabilitation purposes, the Raigad collector stated that no government land was available in the district, while the Palghar collector informed that there was no suitable land in the district since the available plots either came under coastal regulation zones or were located on steep hills.
However, the Thane collector managed to identify suitable land in the district. The state government will also seek to extend the cutoff date for eligibility from January 1, 1995, to January 1, 2011. This would mean a much higher number of slum residents would be eligible for rehabilitation. A committee headed by the SGNP director will supervise the removal of encroachments that came up after January 1, 2011, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, 11,359 of 11,658 eligible slum residents from phase 1 of the rehabilitation drive have been relocated. The remaining 299, along with 13,486 eligible slum residents from phase 2, are yet to be rehabilitated. Around 2,000 tribal families living in SGNP were also asked to relocate by giving them ground-plus-one-storey tenements, the affidavit added.
Tribal families have been relocated on 46 acres of land at Marol-Maroshi in Aarey Colony, while eligible slum residents were supposed to be moved to the remaining 44 acres of a 90-acre plot of land identified for the rehabilitation. However, the high court had, in its order dated January 14, 2025, observed that rehabilitation at Marol-Moshi was not possible in the near future as it is a catchment area of five natural lakes that supply drinking water to the city. It had asked the authorities to find other land to rehabilitate the remaining eligible encroachers.
The affidavit also stated that 312 commercial structures in SGNP have been sent eviction notices, in compliance with the high court’s directions. The SGNP authorities have removed around 17 commercial structures, with May 31 set as the deadline for clearing the rest, the affidavit added.
