North Mumbai BJP MP Gopal Shetty has accused Vishwas Patil, the newly-appointed CEO of the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), of delaying the SRA projects in the city.

In letters written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, the BJP MP has alleged that Mr Patil has brought all the approvals to a standstill for reasons not known to anyone.

“While approving an SRA project, the procedure is the same as the papers move from a junior engineer to a deputy chief engineer and the same is submitted to the CEO for final approval. Still, the approval process has been delayed for a long time,” said Mr Shetty.

In his letters, the North Mumbai MP also hinted at alleged corruption in the SRA. “The authorities of the SRA are getting more income through bribes as compared to the government revenue. Because of their negative attitude, the scheme has not been very successful in Mumbai as it has been able to house only one lakh slum dwellers in 15 years as against the target of eight lakh in five years,” he wrote.

Under the SRA scheme, the slum dwellers in the city appoint a developer, who in lieu of slum redevelopment builds free houses for them and even provides free houses to the government in exchange of FSI.

However, Mr Patil has refuted all allegations. Speaking to The Asian Age, he said, “I have approved many projects ever since I have taken over the reigns of the SRA. In some of the projects, where documents were incomplete, builders have been told to resubmit them. Furthermore, it’s only one and a half months since I have been appointed. It takes some time to get to know technical aspects of the department.”