The Hindu : Jagmohan's presentation to EC on slums

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 20, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Jagmohan's presentation to EC on slums

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 19. Observing that the existence of slums in the Capital, which have come up in violation of the civil and criminal laws, was not conducive to free and fair polls, the Union Tourism Minister, Jagmohan, on Thursday urged the Election Commission to "take a strong initiative" in this regard.

Mr. Jagmohan, who has been single-handedly pursuing the implementation of the Delhi High Court's directive to remove slum clusters from the Yamuna Pushta area, made a presentation in this regard to the Election Commission today. After his presentation, the Commission in a statement said the relocation of slums from Yamuna Pushta was not a violation of the model code of conduct.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Jagmohan said he tried to invite the attention of the Election Commission to the phenomenon of induced squatting, which has been introduced with the evil design of creating a "citadel" of bonded voters. Claiming that the full bench of the Election Commission appreciated his observations, he said: "The foundation of this citadel rests upon the deeply dug trenches of corruption and malpractices, and the army of bonded voters that is housed therein, is made a shareholder of illegal gains that flow from here. This is also served by a politically supported land and building mafia in which functionaries of the government and the local organisations are made co-conspirators."

In his detailed presentation he said: "This phenomenon of induced squatting violates with impunity a host of civil and criminal laws and strangulates almost all "our constitutional, environmental, cultural and civic values". In many cases, this destroys our sacred heritage and uglifies our historic monuments and sets in motion evil forces that add tremendously to the corruption in the machinery of governance".

Mr. Jagmohan asked the Election Commission: "How can a phenomenon, which is based upon violation of so many laws and strangulation of so many positive values find a place in a process which claims to be fair, free and pure?"

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