MUMBAI: Maharashtra chief secretary Sumit Mullick has called a meeting of over ten central agencies to discuss slum rehabilitation scheme for the slums on Government of India land in Mumbai and Thane. 

The various agencies such as the Salt Commissioner, Mumbai Port Trust, Railways, Department of Atomic Energy, Postal Services, Defence, Rashtriya Chemical Fertilisers, Petroleum ministry etc have been invited on May 19 to Mantralaya to discuss the modality of slum rehabilitation on Government of India land in Mumbai. 

In a letter to these agencies, Mullick said the state government has undertaken to make Mumbai slum free by 2022 in line with the Centre's Housing for All - 2022. The state government has proposed rehabilitation of all slum-dwellers on central government land on 400 acres of salt pan land. In 2015 the state had taken up the task of preparing a master plan but in December 2016 a Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority report established that barely 25 acres of salt pan land is developable. 

The government now seems to have decided to try a different approach. The letter states that the various central government agencies have their own policies regarding the slums on their lands but they have neither surveyed nor framed any policy for preparing rehabilitation schemes of these slums with respect to the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (PMAY). 

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