Maharashtra: Seventy years later, hope of a ‘home’ for Sindhi migrants in state

About 30 lakh Sindhi migrants had fled the trauma of Partition to settle in 31 refugee camps across the state.

Government sources said the initial proposal was to redevelop five such settlements in Mumbai.

These five colonies collectively occupy a total of 280 acres with the camps in Mulund and Sion Koliwada that are spread over 100-acre each being the largest. Around 60 acres is occupied by the Sindhi camp in Chembur and 10 acres each by the Thakkar Bappa Colony (also in Chembur), and the Wadia Trust Estate Refugee Camp in Kurla. A total of 5,000 families reside in these settlements, sources said.

Maharashtra’s Relief and Rehabilitation Minister Chandrakant Patil, Housing Minister Prakash Mehta and senior bureaucrats reviewed the redevelopment plans on Thursday.

The plan is to redevelop these colonies on the lines of the redevelopment of Bombay Development Directorate (BDD) chawls in Central Mumbai, where a floor space index of 4 has been extended for the revamp. The chawl residents have been promised bigger apartments on ownership basis.

While the state, which has been overseeing the maintenance of these settlements since 1971, has started giving ownership rights of homes to families residing in these colonies, sources said this benefit hasn’t yet been extended to all families. Also, there are cases where the migrants have illegally transferred accommodation to a third party.

Sources said the low-rise settlements were in derelict condition. Their redevelopment, said officials, had become necessary for the safety of the occupants.

Most of the 25 buildings in the Sion Koliwada refugee camp, for instance, have been tagged dangerous and unfit to live in. On Thursday, civic commissioner Ajoy Mehta, who was present at the meeting, even conveyed plans of the civic body to pull down the buildings on June 1. During the meeting, it was decided that the occupants of these structures would be offered an alternative temporary shelter at Mahul near Chembur.

For the redevelopment plans to proceed, the government will first have to take over these lands from the Centre.

While the maintenance of the colonies was vested in the state in 1971, the ownership of the lands continues to be with the Union government.

Once the land is transferred to the state, the plan is to move a proposal before the state cabinet to appoint the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), which is also redeveloping the BDD chawls, as the nodal agency for the renewal of these settlements. Authorities have been directed to conduct a land survey and submit a report on the land area, the number of occupants, and irregularities.