Mumbai, Jun 2: Bollywood actress and social activist Shabana Azmi today demanded a change in the mass housing and slum rehabilitation policy of the Maharashtra government.
“In a recent meeting, the major demands we have made before Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is that a building of the slum housing project should not go up to 24 storeys,” Azmi said at a press conference here.
“We also demanded that construction of those buildings going up to 24 storeys be stayed,” added the actress, who is also the president of NGO Nivara Hakk.
The Chief Minister felt that the maximum number of storeys in such buildings should be restricted to 10, Azmi said.
“As an NGO we are not against public-private partnership. But there are certain norms which should be adhered with. In a Slum Rehabilitation Authority project, slum dwellers are put up in a very small area of the land and the rest of the land is used by the builder,” she said.
“People who need affordable homes should have lower buildings and the people who have money should have high-rises as they can afford it.
“Affordable housing which is the government's intention never reaches the commoners. Unless a builder gets profit... but from affordable housing and not from high-income housing (the problem will persist),” she said. PTI
