Area set aside in Ahmedabad for PM's affordable housing scheme 'has gone to big builders'

Following my article on affordable housing in Counterview, which quoted a top real estate consultant, I was informed that affordable housing—a scheme introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi—has deviated from its original intent. A former senior bureaucrat, whom I used to meet during my Sachivalaya days, told me that an entire area in Ahmedabad, designated for the scheme, has been used to construct costly houses instead.

The area, Shela, located off Ahmedabad on the way to Sanand, is now filled with "multi-storey buildings," which was not what the Modi scheme, called Prime Minister Awas Yojna (Urban), had envisioned. The area has what are called 3 and 4 bedroom luxurious apartments, whatever that may mean.

"One of my acquaintances, who lived in a dilapidated housing society built decades ago, sold his house for ₹40 lakh, added more than ₹30 lakh, and bought a flat in Shela," he told me. "The flat is 80 square meters in area, but after deducting 40% for super built-up space, it has three bedrooms. Compared to the floor space index (FSI) of 1.5 for affordable housing, the apartments being built here have an FSI of 4.0." The consultant I quoted emphasized that affordable housing should cost a maximum of ₹40 lakh.

Meanwhile, in another reaction to my piece, Mansee Bal Bhargava, a town planning consultant, remarked that affordable housing has already become a thing of the past. She pointed out that the entire Dharavi slum area in Mumbai, the largest in Asia, has been "handed over to the Ambanis."

From Dimagi Naxal to Kartikeya: The curious journey of a political expression

Following the Prime Minister’s “Dimagi Naxal” remark, there appears to have been a huge backlash, especially from protagonists of the “Cockroach Janata Party.” The term is being variously interpreted as a move to “isolate” dissidents, following the claim of a successful campaign against Naxalite violence. Social media is full of “Dimagi Naxal Party” memes, making a joke of an expression used, perhaps for the first time in India.

A rejoinder on ‘Naxal grass’ — but what about ‘Dimagi Naxals’?

Following my blog , in which I cited renowned mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik , who mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Dimagi Naxal” remark by stating that the word “Naxal” refers to a “special river reed that grows in North Bengal (kash grass) with silvery flowers”, and that “Naxali” would be the name of Lord Shiva’s son Kartikeya, who was “born amongst these reeds”, I received an interesting rejoinder.

Did the Sabarmati riverfront make Ahmedabad more vulnerable?

Currently living in Los Angeles, I find myself missing Ahmedabad . Not because I miss living through the city's recent devastating floods—which, experts say, resulted from a combination of extreme meteorological events and chronic urban infrastructure bottlenecks—but because I am unable to make an on-the-spot assessment of the disaster.

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