Demand for housing reservation for Marathi community in Mumbai

The demand is that the state make it mandatory to build small size houses exclusively for the Marathi community. Representation Pic

With the native Marathi community finding themselves marginalised in Mumbai, there has been a demand for reserving housing stock for them in the city. City-based Parle Pancham organisation decided to meet Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in this regard.

President of Parle Pancham Shridhar Khanolkar said, "We are witnessing a decline in population of Maharashtrians in the city. There were cases where houses were denied [to Maharashtrians] as they were non-vegetarian. Often, the cost of houses in Mumbai is out of the budget of the Marathi community. So, we have decided to meet Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in this regard."

The organisation has sort of chalked out a plan for their suggestion. "For one year, builders can make reservations on 50 per cent of housing for the Marathi community. If these houses can't be sold in a year, then he can cancel the reservation. Besides, the state government should make it mandatory to build small size houses, which should be 100 per cent reserved for the Marathi community," Khanolkar said.

Kanholkar said that they decided to meet Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde as he is the administrative head of state. "We also will try to meet Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS chief Raj Thackeray in this regard. We are not interested in any politics but this is the need of sons of the soil," Khanolkar said.

Reacting to this suggestion, Deepak Kesarkar, guardian minister of Mumbai city said, "There is no doubt that the Marathi people should get houses in the city. However, while preparing such a policy, it should also be seen whether it will stand the test of law. If we get such a proposal from them, we will examine it."

50
Percentage of reservation sought in housing