Mumbai: The issue of illegal construction was raised at the eighth Lokshahi Din of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) on January 13, 2025. During the event, a complainant, Kamtekar, presented concerns about unauthorized construction on the terrace of Suruchi Cooperative Housing Society, located in Abhyudayanagar. Despite several previous complaints, no action had been taken under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning (MRTP) Act.
The session, chaired by Milind Borikar, Chief Officer of the Mumbai Board and Acting Vice President and CEO of MHADA, took place at the MHADA headquarters in Bandra East. Kamtekar expressed fears that the unauthorized construction could compromise the safety of the building and urged swift action to address the issue.
In response, Borikar instructed the concerned Executive Engineer to conduct a thorough survey of the building and prepare a detailed report. He emphasized the importance of addressing the problem promptly and directed that the report be submitted to the Encroachment Removal Cell of the Mumbai Board. Borikar set a deadline of one month for the action to be completed.
The event also saw the resolution of another grievance raised by Rupesh Ghadi, a beneficiary of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) (Urban) program. Ghadi had won an allotment in the Shirgaon Housing Project in Kalyan, under the Konkan Board's 2018 lottery, but had not yet received possession of his flat. After a review of the situation, it was found that delays were due to verification issues on the PMAY portal, which had now been resolved. Borikar promptly instructed officers to hand over possession of the flat to Ghadi.
The eighth Lokshahi Din saw four applications in total, with two related to the Mumbai and Konkan Boards. To date, MHADA has successfully resolved 75 out of 81 applications in previous Lokshahi Din events.