Policy for relocating slum dwellers from Sanjay Gandhi National Park ready: Shinde

Nagpur, Dec 11 (PTI) Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Thursday informed the Legislative Assembly that the government has prepared a policy to shift tribal families and about 25,000 slum dwellers living inside Mumbai's Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

The government plans to rehabilitate tribal families within the same area, while the slum dwellers who had encroached on forest land would be shifted to no-development zones within a 5-km radius of the park. The shifting will help free a large area of forest land, said Shinde who holds the urban development portfolio.

"Many settlements inside the park fall in the no-development zone and the court has ordered that these areas be cleared. But residents may not respond well if they are shifted far away. So the government studied different options and drafted a new policy," he said. PTI ND KRK