The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Law suggested to halt growth of slums

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 27, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Law suggested to halt growth of slums

Swathi Shivanand

Bangalore: The city's planners have decided that there would be no more new slums in Bangalore. This is one of the growth patterns envisaged for the city in the City Development Plan prepared under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), which places emphasis on providing basic services to urban poor.

To implement this grand idea of halting the growth of slums, the CDP recommends the adoption of State legislation by which at least 20 per cent of the developed land in all housing projects (both public and private agencies) would be earmarked for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) as well as Low Income Group (LIG) categories.

It also suggests that the Government consider making it mandatory that major construction projects seeking large-scale employment of unskilled labour to provide temporary housing and infrastructure. The logic behind it is that the construction workers seeking temporary employment move in with their families during the course of the construction activity and later continue to remain in the city seeking new employment opportunities.

According to statistics in the CDP, the city has 542 slums. As many as 218 have been declared as slums by the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board (KSCB), while there are 169 undeclared slums (existing on private property or have come into being less than 10 years ago) in the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike areas. There are 155 slums in the eight urban local bodies.

Rehabilitation for the 218 declared slums would be taken up by the KSCB, while housing and basic services in the 323 slums falling in BMP and the urban local bodies limits would be the responsibility of the BMP alone.

While the BMP is still undertaking a survey to prepare projects reports for the development of slums in its jurisdiction, the KSCB has drawn up a Rs. 184.69-crore project for the rehabilitation of 30 declared slums.

Slum dwellers would be shifted to 17 different sites and 1,000 houses have been planned in Sadarmangala at Mahadevapura in Varthur Hobli, 3,000 houses at Kudlu village near Electronics City and 675 houses at Singapura in Byatarayanapura, says Rajanna, Joint Director (in-charge of JNNURM) at KSCB.

As many as 11,353 households are set to benefit from the first phase of this project, he has said. As much as 50 per cent of the funds are to come from the Union Government, 35 per cent from the State Government while the balance (15 per cent) has to be raised by the slum dwellers benefiting from the scheme. "The idea is not to give anything free," says Mr. Rajanna.

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