The Hindu : National : Slum-dwellers 'storm' Shastri Bhavan

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Wednesday, Mar 16, 2005

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National

Slum-dwellers 'storm' Shastri Bhavan

By Our Staff Correspondent

DEMAND JUSTICE: The Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, and Swami Agnivesh staging a protest in New Delhi on Tuesday against the demolition of slums in Mumbai and demanding compensation to Narmada Dam oustees. — Photo: V. Sudershan

NEW DELHI, MARCH 15. Medha Patkar, environmentalist and social activist, today came down heavily on the Congress for "suffocating to death'' the very same people on whose votes the party came to power in Maharashtra by demolishing their slums in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities.

Talking to reporters after "storming'' Shastri Bhavan which houses office of the Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Tuesday morning, Ms. Patkar said that to recognise these lakhs of toiling people as voters and yet immediately after elections, deny them a place and position even as resident citizen was utter deception. In a memorandum submitted to the Minister, the slum-dwellers, under the banner of Zhopadi Bachao Sayunkt Kriti Samiti, said the demolition of slums was a violation of the national common minimum programme announced by the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, soon after assuming power. It said the Vision Mumbai Plan was against the disadvantaged sections favouring the builders, corporates and the rich to whom the land was allotted.

The displaced people demanded the stopping of demolitions and protection of all slums and houses built prior to 2000 with facilities for development, besides transferring ownership of land on which these hutments stood to the names of the dwellers and execution of a low cost housing scheme for the affected people. Over 90,000 families had been displaced in the recent demolitions in Mumbai city, rendering about four lakh people homeless and forcing about a lakh of children out of school.

Ms. Patkar said thousands of acres of land had been fraudulently misappropriated by the builders' lobby by taking exemptions under the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act.

But, instead of constructing flats for the weaker sections as a pre-condition for the permission granted by the competent authority, huge luxurious apartments had come up. There had also been a very large and open flouting of Coastal Regulation Zone notification, and laws have been openly breached, she pointed out.

Narmada Bachao Andolan activists have urged the Madhya Pradesh Government to stop raising the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam in the wake of today's Supreme Court judgment directing that each major son of a family must be given two hectares of land. The height of the dam is to be raised from the present 110.64 metres to 121.92 metres but according to Ms. Patkar, there are still over 10,000 families living in the submergence area who need to be rehabilitated and compensated in the wake of the apex court's directions.

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