By Dr. Sanjay Chaturvedi, LLB, PhD.
When India got freedom, it was a constitutional Right awarded to Indian citizen to have property. Right to own a property was taken a back by emergency time in 1977 and till today it is not restored. Ad now Bombay High Court in its land mark judgment said that “ It is true that food, clothing and shelter are the basic needs of human being and an active and continuous efforts on the part of the government are indeed needed to provide residence to every needy and poor citizen who is shelterless in an urban city like Mumbai. But the petitioner cannot, as a legal or constitutional right, insist upon for allotment of a residential accommodation by the state government from its discretionary quota.”
A divisional bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice A P Bhangale dismissed the plea of Arjun Gaikwad for a houseunder the state’s discretionary quota saying no such right can be claimed.
Neither government nor private developers are liable to provide shelter to millions of homeless like Gaikwad. Five Year Plans and every Union Budget bypass the acute problem of shelterlessness. Private developers are in business and if they purchase land at a high cost, but natural, they are going to sell it for even higher. It is the duty of government to provide mass budget housing says industry leaders.
CIDCO, MHADA, MMRDA MIDC, DDA, AUDA and likewise state housing boards are selling land at high cost and competing each other and even within to enhance land cost. Flats allotment process have come under scanner many times and men made computer work as salve for favours. Poor shelterless person is even deprived ofhousing loan interest which housing finance companies bring from Germany and elsewhere for 4% and never give advantage to ultimate customers. God alone can help homeless billions of India who still believe that miracles do happen in our country.