Former mill workers, families queue for hours in hope of getting MHADA flats

Mumbai: Former mill workers and their family members were seen waiting in a long queue on Thursday outside the Samaj Mandir Hall, Government Colony, Bandra East, to prove their work history in the city to become eligible for subsidised housing provided by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA).

The people, most of whom had come from Pune, Kolhapur, Malvan, and one even from Hyderabad, were seen desperately trying to verify their documents and avail the MHADA scheme.

The verification process started on September 15 and will continue for three months. Sixty-three-year-old Shankar reached the city from Hyderabad at 7am on Thursday, and the journey cost him ₹700. “We’ve been standing in this queue since 8am. They’ve given out tokens for the day, and they’re saying they will not let us in. I don’t have any space to stay tonight,” he said.

Shankar worked in the Morarji No. 2 mill in Dadar between 1976 and 1982, after which he left the state to make his living through agriculture. At the time of leaving, he and other mill workers were promised housing in the place where the mills stood. He’d previously submitted the form he held with him in 2010 too. But by the end of the day, his verification was still pending, and he’d been asked to queue again the next day. He would have to shell out another ₹500 for his stay.

Pravin Ghag, president of the Girni Kamgar Sangharsh Samiti, a mill workers union, said that the verification process used to occur after the lottery. “There have been around 1,50,000 forms filled for the housing over the years. But with no details of when the lottery is going to be held from which only a select thousand will be allotted housing, this is a tedious procedure that will trouble the workers,” he added.

He suspected there could be political motives behind the shift in procedure.

The guards at the hall said that 800 tokens had been given on Thursday. Around 30 people still stood around without tokens, pleading to let them in, however, the guards asked them to start lining up at 7am, following which the tokens for the day would be given out between 8am to 10am.

The verification process is also available online, but most in the queue claimed it had not worked for them.

“The world works on hope,” said Manohar Balram Uphare, a resident in a chawl in Byculla whose father had previously worked in Century Mills. “We don’t know when the next lottery will be held and when we will get the houses. And when we do get them, it will be far away in Palghar, Kalyan or Thane, uprooting us from our lives here. But we still have the hope for a house.”

Milind Borikar, chief officer of the Mumbai Housing and Area Development Board at MHADA did not respond to questions.