The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Slum dwellers protest eviction; board says they are trespassers

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Friday, Dec 28, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Slum dwellers protest eviction; board says they are trespassers

Staff Reporter

Protesters stage a day-long dharna, officials to look into their claims today

— Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

SHELTERLESS: Slum dwellers of Chikkabommasandra of Yelahanka staging a protest inside the Karnatala Slum Clearance Board office in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE: More than 120 families residing at the Chikkabommasandra slum attached to the Judges Colony in Yelahanka New Town were evicted by the staff of the Karnataka State Slum Clearance Board on Thursday.

The family members alleged that they were thrown to the streets along with their belongings without any prior notice from the board.

Protesting the eviction, the residents led by leaders of Samata Sainik Dal, gheraoed the slum board Commissioner’s office and staged a protest for the whole of Thursday. The members withdrew the dharna in the evening after an assurance from the officials that the evicted families would be temporarily rehabilitated. They have decided to continue the dharna on Friday.

“We have been staying in this slum for 20 years. After the board built houses under the Centre’s Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) here, we were promised that genuine slum dwellers would be allotted the houses but most of the 270 houses there have been allotted to people recommended by influential officials,” Kamalamma, a resident said.

M. Venkataswamy, Samata Sainik Dal president, alleged that the slum board officials had sold the VAMBAY houses for more than Rs. 3 lakh to people recommended by influential politicians.

He said members of the Samata Sainik Dal along with the residents would resume their protest on Friday demanding that the allotment made to people who were not the genuine beneficiaries be cancelled.

V. Ashok, Commissioner of the Karnataka State Slum Clearance Board, refuted the allegations and said that the protesters had unauthorisedly occupied the VAMBAY houses. “Before the VAMBAY houses were built less than 50 families lived in the slum and most of them have been accommodated,” he said.

He said he would meet the protesters on Friday and examine the genuineness of their claims.

Title deeds sought

Demanding regularisation of slums in the city and “hakku patras” (title deeds) for slum dwellers, members of the Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Hitharakshana Janti Kriya Samiti on Thursday staged a protest in front of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) head office. Most of the land where slums were located was owned by the urban local body of the area. Although the H.D. Kumaraswamy Government had directed all the officials to conduct a survey and grant ownership rights and title deeds to slum dwellers in January this year, slum dwellers were yet to get the benefits, Arul Issac Selva, samiti member said.

The members submitted a memorandum to BBMP Deputy Commissioner (Administration) S.L. Manjunath, who assured them that he would fix an appointment for them with Commissioner S. Subramanya next week.

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