FILE photo: A slumdweller throws household trash across an open space strewn with garbage outside her tenement in Mumbai
With the Lok Sabha elections approaching, the Maharashtra cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to regularise slums built till the year 2000, extending the earlier cut-off date by five years.
The decision is expected to benefit nearly 3.45 lakh people living in illegal shanties in Mumbai as the government is planning to amend the Maharashtra Slum Areas (Improvement, Clearance and Redevelopment) Act with immediate effect, a senior minister told PTI.
The decision of extending the cut-off date to regularise the slums was taken amid mounting pressure from the elected representatives from Mumbai ahead of the elections.
The cabinet also approved the Rs 23,000-crore underground Mumbai metro phase-III project. The 33.5 km underground Metro Rail-III project will connect Colaba in south Mumbai to Bandra, the airport and finally the MIDC SEEPZ, in the suburbs.
The cabinet also approved the proposed amendment in Maharashtra Medical Practitioners Act to give legal framework to the 80,000 practising Ayurvedic doctors in the state.