The Hindu : National : V.P. Singh wants law on housing for urban poor

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Sunday, Aug 21, 2005

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National

V.P. Singh wants law on housing for urban poor

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Left parties will soon take up the issue of relocation of slum-dwellers with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Talking to reporters, Left leaders along with the former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, said not much had been done in this direction in the past one-and-half years. "The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) is clear on the issue of providing them alternative housing and is against forcible demolition," CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said.

Suggesting a national law to evolve a uniform policy on the issue, Mr. Singh said the United Progressive Alliance Government was committed to relocating the slum-dwellers but not much progress had been made so far. Slum-dwellers should only be displaced when the Government cleared the project and passed the budget, he said.

The Left leaders, including CPI leaders — A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja — Abani Roy of the RSP and Bebabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc held a meeting at Mr. Singh's residence on Saturday evening on the issue of slum-dwellers.

"The idea is to put pressure on the Government to do some good for the slum-dwellers,'' Mr. Roy said while drawing attention to eviction of slum-dwellers in Mumbai and Delhi to pave the way for big builders and developers.

Meeting wtih PM in near future

According to Mr. Bardhan their meeting with the Prime Minister would be in the "near future" since not much progress had been made on this front.

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