Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Chairman of slum clearance board inspects projects

Special Correspondent

Officials of the board pulled up for slow progress of work

DISCUSSION: Chairman of the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board Rajendra Varma interacting with a housewife at a colony in Gulbarga on Thursday.

GULBARGA: New chairman of the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board Rajendra Varma conducted a surprise inspection of some of the development projects taken up by the board.

He was greeted with empty colonies, which were supposed to house rehabilitated slum dwellers. In some cases, the houses had been occupied by illegally.

Mr. Varma on his maiden visit to Gulbarga after taking charge, decided to visit some of the slums and inspect the projects taken up by the board in the existing slums under the Valmiki Ambedkar Housing Scheme and other housing schemes.

During his visit to Harijan Wada, which is declared as a slum, in the outskirts of Gulbarga, Mr. Varma interacted with the beneficiaries of the Valmiki Ambedkar Housing Scheme . He pulled up the officials of the board for the slow progress of work.

Mr. Varma also noted that the Harijan Wada, which has been declared as a slum by the Government, does not look like one.

The scheme under the Valmiki Ambedkar Housing Scheme could have been taken up in another slum, where there was a need for a programme to improve the living conditions of slum dwellers.

He then visited a colony with more than 170 houses constructed with the assistance of HUDCO on the Gulbarga Ring Road in the outskirts of the city to rehabilitate slum dwellers living in different slums in the city. Majority of the houses remained unoccupied despite the fact that the colony was built more than a decade back.

Even the residents of few houses, which were occupied, were not the real beneficiaries.

The chairman interacted with a family living in the colony.

He was told that the family had occupied the house, which was vacant after they cleared the thorny bush and got an electricity connection. Mr. Varma noted that although the colony was more than ten years old, it did not have a potable drinking water source.

Residents had to walk for more than two km to get a pot of water and the borewell dug in the colony was saline. The colony also lacked good approach roads and drainage facilities.

Mr. Varma later warned the officials that he would not tolerate such illegal acts and asked them to ensure that only those who have been allotted the houses occupy them.

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