Fresh applications to be enlisted as thika tenants, a process that was not being allowed since 2014, will be opened for a six-month window from May 1, mayor Firhad Hakim announced on Friday.

All registered slums — which the state government has renamed as Uttaran — will also be enlisted as thika properties, Hakim added.

“The cabinet has given its approval to take fresh applications for enlistment as thika tenants. This process had been stopped several years ago. A six-month window to submit fresh applications will be opened from May 1,” Hakim said.

An official of the state government said every thika praja (tenant) had to submit a return to the thika controller. The return had details like name, parents’ name, area of the thika under the tenant’s custody, the zamindar from whom the tenant got the thika land and the location of the thika land.

“Fresh applications have not been taken since 2014. Several people who were ignorant of this requirement were not receiving any civic services without this certificate. Whenever they went to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for mutation or for a building, the KMC asked them first to obtain the certificate,” said the official.

Hakim said there were 3,079 registered slums in Calcutta. He said all of them would be enlisted as thika land to help stop the eviction of dwellers for real estate projects.