— Photo: Ashoke Chakrabarty

AGITATED: Slum dwellers demonstrating protesting against eviction in Bhubaneswar on Friday.

BHUBANESWAR: Demanding `respectable existence' in the capital city, hundreds of slum dwellers staged a demonstration on the Mahatma Gandhi Marg, the main road leading to the Orissa Legislative Assembly here, on Friday. In the morning, the rally was taken out from the busy Master Canteen Square to Lower PMG, where leaders of slum dwellers vent their ire against administration for its continuous eviction drive.

For four hours, these residents of urban ghettos were seen raising slogans against the State government's policies, which, they alleged, tilted in favour of rich and influential section of the population.

"The slum dwellers, unlike influential people, do not encroach upon the government land. Most of the inhabitants are small traders, daily and construction workers, sweepers, cobblers and rickshaw drivers," said Sibram, president of Basti Surakshya Manch (BSM).

Economic compulsion

He said it was the economic compulsion that forced the slum dwellers to make the capital city their home, otherwise they could have peacefully led their lives in villages.

"According to a survey conducted in 1997 there were 22,413 families living below the poverty line. The number went up to 67,649 families in 2004. The capital city saw growth of poverty by 201 per cent with seven years time," Sibram said.

Instead of making efforts to improve their living condition, the administration was trying to drive them out from the city limit, the BSM president alleged.

When a multinational company sought land to set up its corporate office or a domestic corporate house wanted space for hotels or retail business, they were readily provided with lands but the slum dwellers were kicked out from the city limit, Gopinath Nayak, another sum dwellers' leader said.

Basic facilities

They demanded every family living in slums be provided with 600 square feet land which should be well connected with land, water and electricity supply.

The administration should not pick selected slums for development under the Centre-sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission but it should attempt to bring in overall development of all urban ghettos, Mr. Nayak said.

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