Gujarat: Muslim woman allotted flat under CM scheme in Vadodara, residents protest (WATCH)

Local residents in Vadodara are protesting the allocation of a house under the Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana government housing scheme to a Muslim family. The housing complex has 462 units and has been predominantly Hindu.

Residents of the Motnath Residency Cooperative Housing Society Limited in Gujarat are protesting and seeking to invalidate the housing allotment granted to a Muslim woman. Due to neighbours' claims that the complex is predominantly Hindu, the lady, a government employee, is subjected to prejudice.

A 44-year-old Muslim woman working for the Ministry of Entrepreneurship and Skill Development was given a home in the city's Harni neighbourhood in 2017 as part of the Mukhyamantri Awas Yojana, which is a low-income housing complex managed by Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC), reported Indian Express.

According to the report, 33 residents wrote to the District Collector and other officials before the woman and her minor son could move in, asking that her assigned dwelling unit in the 462-unit complex be revoked and that she be moved to another housing scheme.

The woman told The Indian Express that in 2020 the residents also wrote to the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) to seek her allotment to be invalidated. As per the report, the recent protest started on June 10. 

In the memorandum, they demanded, “The VMC has allotted the house number K204 to one minority beneficiary in March 2019. We believe that Harni area is a Hindu-dominated peaceful area and there is no settlement of Muslims in the periphery of about four kilometres. It is like setting fire to the peaceful life of 461 families…”

The woman currently lives with her parents and son in another area of Vadodara. Officials of the VMC’s housing department told this newspaper that since government schemes did not segregate applicants and beneficiaries on the basis of religion, the housing draw was conducted as per the norms.