MHADA Forcibly Acquires Dilapidated Buildings

The Uddhav Thackeray government bypassed the Centre’s land acquisition Act for acquiring dilapidated buildings in the island city of Mumbai. Invoking the right to safety of those occupying these rundown buildings, the amendments allow the government to suspend a landowner’s right to property and forcibly acquire and redevelop them if the owner does not initiate redevelopment within a given time frame. Making time-bound redevelopment of dilapidated tenanted and non-tenanted building mandatory, the state Cabinet approved modification to the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976, enabling state-run Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) to forcibly acquire properties in cases where the landholders or developers are found to have stalled redevelopments. The state law department has reportedly objected to the compensation being offered to the land losers. While the state housing department has proposed a compensation of up to 25 per cent of the land’s ready reckoner values or 15 per cent of built-up space, the former has argued that it must be strictly in accordance with the Centre’s Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013, which entitles the land loser to receive 200 per cent of the plot’s market value as compensation.