Financial news

Mumbai protestors march to Adani Group offices over city slum redevelopment plan – JURIST

Thousands of protestors headed by opposition parties marched to billionaire Gautam Adani’s offices in Mumbai on Saturday to express their objection to his conglomerate’s $614 million reconstruction plans for one of the city’s largest slums.The demands of the protestors include both eligible and non-eligible residents of the slum to be housed inside the redeveloped area, be given bigger homes of 500 square feet instead of the promised 300-350 sq ft. and for the government to take over the slum overhaul instead of private developers like Adani. Baburao Mane, leader of Save Dharavi Committee (Dharavi Bachao Andolan), said, “We are not against development, but the way the Dharavi redevelopment is planned it will only benefit Adani and not the slum residents.”In November last year, the Adani group won the Dharavi redevelopment project with a ₹5,069 crore bid. The Maharashtra government approved the Adani Group’s proposal to rehabilitate Mumbai’s 590-acre Dharavi area, home to over 900,000 Indians this year.A competing bidder, a Dubai-based group, filed a judicial challenge to the project, claiming that the Maharashtra government improperly terminated an original 2018 tender for slum remediation and favored Adani in awarding the new contract. The government in power (BJP government) and the Adani Group claim that it was during the previous government (MVA government) that the agreement with the Adani group was signed. The Adani Group and the BJP government denied the allegations and asserted that the contracts were allocated lawfully. The authorities also released a statement regarding the same.This is not the only controversy over the Adani Group’s business practices. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of India ordered an investigation into the Adani Group following accusations of business malpractice.Uddhav Thackeray, one of the leaders of the protests, categorically states that this project is “the biggest TDR [Transfer of Development Rights] scam of the world.” He also stated, “Adani is getting TDR of Rs 1 crore, which means his next generations can also live peacefully without working. So much is the TDR that the government is gifting them.”