PMAY: MCC to give Rs 60L, 20 acres to forest dept

Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) has decided to pay Rs 60 lakh for taking up compensatory afforestation and to seek permission for the felling of trees on the land identified for urban housing project, from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF).

Besides, the MCC has also decided to hand over 20 acres of alternative land to the forest department as compensation for taking up the housing project on deemed forest land at Rajiv Nagara in Padavu village of Shaktinagara.

The four-year-old housing project initiated jointly under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and the state government’s funds, aimed at constructing 930 houses on 10 acres of land on survey number 82 (G+3 model), for the poor shelterless in Mangaluru city.

The proposal for the project was approved on September 30, 2016. Even after four years, the poor who were given the title deeds are still waiting for a roof over their head, drawing criticism from various quarters.

After the initial work of calling tenders for the works was taken up, environment groups raised objections stating that it was a deemed forest and the forest department also withheld the permission to clear the trees on said land. As a result, the project suffered a setback.

According to officials, the MCC has to get permission from the MoEF to continue the project and an online application seeking permission to fell trees has been submitted on January 24, 2020.

In addition, the MCC has written to the tahsildar to earmark 20 acres of land on survey number 100/4 at Tenkayedapadavu, in the name of MCC, to be handed over to the forest department, for afforestation.

The council of the Mangaluru City Corporation has recently approved the proposal to hand over Rs 60 lakh and 20 acres of alternative land to the forest department.

MLA Vedavyas Kamath during the council meeting had said, “I have been personally pursuing the matter to make the project a reality at the earliest.”

The title deeds for the 930 beneficiaries of the project were handed over on February 24, 2018.

It may be recalled that the failure to start the project had even led to a spar between former MLA J R Lobo and current MLA Vedavyas Kamath, a few months ago.

The estimated cost of the project was Rs 69.5 crore and the unit cost of each house was Rs 5 lakh, of which a sum of Rs 1.8 lakh would be borne by the state government for SCs and Rs 1.2 lakh for others; Rs 1.5 lakh by the Central government and Rs 1 lakh by MCC for SCs, for others Rs 70,000 and the remaining amount would be borne by the individual beneficiaries.