State, centre to share Mumbai's salt pan lands

More than 5,500 acres of Mumbai's salt pan lands will be shared by the state and Centre on 50:50 basis and state will like to use the land for making affordable housing available to common man and rehabilitating those affected by various urban infrastructure projects in the city, said chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

He was speaking with reporters on the sidelines of National Conference on Affordable Housing for All, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Government of Maharashtra and Government of India.

Though no formal agreement has been reached yet between state and Central governments on this issue, work to prepare modalities of transferring the land is presently carried out by the empowered group of ministers led by Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, said Deshmukh.

The salt-pan lands which are located in suburbs like Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg, Trombay, Bhandup etc. are administered by the salt commissioner, who is an official under Central government's commerce and industry ministry.

The state government is pressing for getting the land covered by salt-pans for housing purposes since early part of this decade. Around two years back commerce minister Kamalnath even accepted, state government's proposal to make these lands available to state.

However, due to various legal and environmental issues involved in the transfer of land, land couldn't be transferred.

Hence, EGOM under Pawar was appointed by the Prime Minister which includes Kamalnath, Power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, law minister H P Bhardwaj among others. The group's first meeting took place on April 23.

The salt-pan land was leased out in late nineteen and early part of twentieth century to various private persons, who now claim they not only possess the land but own it. And they are carrying out the business of salt production from days of Portuguese and Maratha rein over this region.

Besides this environmentalists are opposed to use of salt-pan land for development as they claim, these lands are city's last defense against ocean floggings and they maintain city's delicate ecological balance.

So complex legal and social and political battle lies ahead of the Central and state government, even if state and Centre agree on how to share the land, feel the observers of urban issues.