'Maha govt committed to provide house to every mill worker': CM Uddhav Thackeray

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday announced that the Maharashtra government is committed to provide homes to mill workers who have contributed immensely to the Samyukta Maharashtra movement. 

CM Uddhav Thackeray was participating in a lucky draw function by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA), where they started the allotment process for about 3,894 flats to mill workers through a lottery system. 

The official Twitter handle of Chief Minister of Maharashtra also wrote about how the Maharashtra CM made an appeal to all the mill workers to not sell the allotted house and move out of Mumbai. 

The CMO's tweet in Hindi roughly translates to: "Mill workers have contributed towards the struggle for 'Samyukta Maharashtra'. The CM has directed us to provide houses to mill workers. He has also asked you to not sell those houses to anyone else and not to leave Mumbai."

READ | Will see how to provide house to every mill worker: Thackeray

The 3,894 MHADA flats all one-bedroom, hall and kitchen flats, with a total area of 225 square feet each. Out of these 3,894 flats, 720 flats are located at Bombay Dyeing Mill Wadala, 2,630 units at Bombay Dyeing Spring Mill Compound Wadala, and 544 flats at Shriniwas Mill in Lower Parel.

The allocation event was attended by Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhhav Thackeray, Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad and Mumbai's Mayor Kishori Pednekar.

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Shutdown of mills

The history of the shutdown of mills in Mumbai goes back all the way to 1982 when trade union leader Datta Samant had headed the historic 18-month strike of the mill workers. The strike had reportedly affected over 80 textile mills that employed over 300,000 workers. The strike became the longest run industrial agitation in post-Independence India.

The talks between the union and the textile management resulted in repeated failures, after which a lot of workers migrated outside Mumbai. After the failure, over two dozen mills shut down from the state capital or moved their base to the neighboring state of Gujarat. Back in the time, a majority of mills were located between Mahim and Mumbai Central.

Then by mid-2000, large mill properties were permitted to be redeveloped. The compound which once had mills, now house posh residential or commercial buildings.

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