Shinde govt favouring Adani in Dharavi project, says Varsha Gaikwad

Mumbai Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad on Friday accused the Eknath Shinde government of bending norms and bestowing favours on the Gautam Adani group in the Dharavi redevelopment project.Speaking in the Assembly, Gaikwad, the MLA from Dharavi, said the saleable area in the project had doubled after the billionaire industrialist’s group firm got the rights to execute the project.

Raising the issue under Rule 293, Gaikwad said, “Dharavi slum has an area of 160 hectares. After redevelopment the saleable area will be 10.5 crore square feet. In 2018, when Devendra Fadnavis was Maharashtra chief, the builder who carries out the redevelopment was supposed to get just 5 crore square feet.

What has happened that the saleable area has doubled in five years? Chief Minister Eknath Shinde goes to Delhi and everything gets changed just to handover this project to Adani. Why is this government hell bent on giving Dharavi redevelopment project to Adani,” she asked.Gaikwad claimed seven lakh people would be asked to shift from Dharavi, which post redevelopment would be full of commercial complexes and will become an extension of business hub Bandra Kurla Complex.Gaikwad, who recently took out a morcha against the Dharavi redevelopment project, said some of the residents were served eviction notices in the middle of the night through unauthorised sources and were asked to clear out within four days. Without naming anyone, she said three of the officers had earlier served in Dharavi.The Congress leader urged deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to take steps against this practice and also appealed to speaker Rahul Narwekar to give directives to the government in this regard.