The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Title deeds for Koramangala slum dwellers after a long wait

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Thursday, Jul 17, 2008
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Title deeds for Koramangala slum dwellers after a long wait

Bageshree S.

‘We have been fighting for our rights since the Eighties’

— Photo: K. Gopinathan

Shelter-less: People living in huts at Lakshman Rau Nagar slum, which is one of the biggest slums in Bangalore.

Bangalore: The wait of the residents of four slums in Koramangala for ownership rights over the small patches of housing sites on which they have lived for decades is now yielding results.

After much delay and many bureaucratic hurdles, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has started the process of executing lease-cum-sale agreements with the residents of L.R. Nagar, Rajendra Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Shastri Nagar slums.

In November 1989, the then Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) Council passed a resolution that people living in the four slums at Koramangala could be given ownership rights over the houses where they were staying. The same resolution was passed yet again in 1998. But it remained on paper till now.

Puttaswamy, Joint Commissioner, East, BBMP, said that an awareness camp was being held in these four slums to educate the residents about this scheme.

The process of identifying beneficiaries was on in other slums in Bangalore too. There would be an agreement that the beneficiary should not sell the site to anyone for 10 years or rent out any portion of it. The dimension of each site was 15ft X 20 ft.

“Some of the residents have lived here for 35 years. Many residents of L.R. Nagar, for example, were shifted to this place when they were displaced from Jakkarayanakere to build a stadium,” Isaac Arul Selva, an activist, said. “Between 1975 and 1986 people from different places were shifted to this area in batches.” The decision to give title deeds was taken at a high-level meeting in February 2008 in which BBMP and revenue officials and slum dwellers participated, he said.

About 1,800 families live in L.R. Nagar slum and 1,200 in the slums of Rajendra Nagar, Ambedkar Nagar and Shastri Nagar.

Some residents, however, are unhappy with the delay in the execution of the scheme. Puttanna of Koramangala Slum Development Committee said that though the process of providing lease-cum-sale agreement had officially begun, there was delay in it. “First, it was postponed because of elections, and now we do not know why,” he said.

“We have been fighting for our rights since the Eighties and continue to do so.” The committee had staged protests and submitted several representations to the BBMP seeking rights over the land, he said.

Demand for land rights is high on the priority of slum dwellers in Bangalore since they are insecure and face the threat of being evicted because of the real estate boom.

Though, this is a common promise made to slum dwellers during elections, it is rarely kept.

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