Mumbai, July 10 (IANS) Tourism Minister Shambhuraj Desai has said in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly that a meeting will be held soon under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde regarding the expediting the stalled slum redevelopment projects in Mumbai.

He was replying to a question raised by Tamil Selvan about stalled Sion Koliwada slum redevelopment project and loafed other members including Anant Nar and Murji Patel also demanded seminar stalled redevelopment projects in other parts of Mumbai be implemented expeditiously.

Desai said that 517 slum redevelopment projects being implemented by the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in the Brihanmumbai area are stalled projects due to various reasons, adding that the government and the concerned authorities have taken a slew of measures to speed up these projects.

Also, ‘Abhay Yojana ‘ has been implemented for these stalled projects, under which new developers have been appointed in 23 projects. This has paved the way for more than 25,000 slum dwellers to get the benefits of the schemes.

Further, minister Desai said that in order to give more momentum to these slum redevelopment projects, a partnership has been formed between the Slum Rehabilitation Authority and seven government organisations/corporations including CIDCO, MHADA, MIDC, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, MMRDA, MSRDC, and MAHAPREIT.

Meanwhile, minister of Other Backward Classes Welfare Atul Save informed the Legislative Council that the government is committed to the welfare of the Other Backward Classes in the state and has demanded a supplementary allocation of Rs 203 crore for the effective implementation of the ‘Mahajyoti’ schemes. He was replying to a calling attention motion moved by Abhijit Vanjani.

Stating that Rs 174 crore has been approved for the ‘Mahajyoti’ building project in Nashik and Rs 29 crore for Nagpur, Minister Save said that the work on the project is underway in Nashik , while the Nagpur project will be inaugurated soon. In 2022-23, 20,000 beneficiaries were benefited from a fund of Rs 200 crore.

This year, the aim is to benefit at least 70,000 students. This year, 50 per cent women will be given priority under the training scheme. Last year, 28 students passed the UPSC through the training of ‘Mahajyoti’. He added that all schemes are being successfully implemented through ‘Mahajyoti’.

–IANS

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