The Hindu : New Delhi News : Plea to include `right to housing' in Constitution

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Plea to include `right to housing' in Constitution

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, OCT. 8. Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working for uplift of labourers in the unorganised sector and the urban poor have urged the Centre to amend the Constitution to incorporate "Right to Housing" as a fundamental right to all citizens of the country. They have also demanded that 30 per cent of land in all residential land-use areas (public or private) in urban and semi-urban cities and towns be reserved for meeting the habitat needs of all unorganised sector workers.

The representatives of NGOs from across the country met under the banner of India Habitat Campaign in the Capital last week and discussed deteriorating situations regarding housing under globalisation, liberalisation, privatisation and also made field visits at the resettlement sites in Delhi. They also adopted a declaration, which included their demands, and urged the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre to implement workable solutions for their miseries in accordance with the Common Minimum Programme.

Some prominent NGOs that took part in the programme included the Campaign for Housing & Tenurial Rights, Hyderabad; the Ucched Birodhi Jukta Moncha, Kolkata; Slum Dwellers Welfare Union, Visakhapatnam; Sannihita, Hyderabad; Jhuggi Basti Sangharsh Morcha, Indore and Mewad Valmiki Yuwa Mahasabha, Nathdwara.

Demanding that the UPA Government must ensure that the urban poor inhabitants were not forcibly evicted, they said the National Slum Policy Draft (1999) introduced by the NDA Government be recommended for further amendments/modifications in line with the CMP and placed for public debate and then tabled before the Parliament.

Appealing the Centre to reintroduce the Urban Land & Ceiling Act (1976) with pro-poor provisions, the meeting alleged that in majority of cities there was urban ceiling, lands acquired by the state governments and union territories were being transferred in the interest of rich and powerful.

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