Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Relocation leaves them in the lurch

— PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

A woman evicted from Padmavathi ghat and relocated in Rajarajeswaripet during Krishna Pushkarams narrates the difficulties in Vijayawada on Sunday.

VIJAYAWADA: As you walk the dingy lanes in new Rajarajeswaripeta, Ajithsingh Nagar, and Vambay colony, you witness the drains overflowing characteristically, while some women vie for a pot of drinking water. Aged and ill people lie on wrecked cots with no glimmer of hope for future in their eyes. Children play around as “they have no schools to go to”.

These are some of the pitiable conditions in these areas, where nearly 3,000 families that were evicted from places like Padmavathi ghat, Radha Nagar and Krishna river bed, were relocated. A look at this relocation colonies shows that they have no electricity, schools or health centres. Provisions for toilets and drinking water are inadequate. But the vast majority in them have received nothing-- no land, no house so far, and have been left to fend for themselves.

“How can they expect us to live at a place that has no proper water and drainage facilities, dispensaries or schools?” asks Danamma. Except for some electric poles, one or two taps and hand pumps, which don’t work, no other amenities have been provided, she adds.

And, the sanitation-level of these areas has hit rock bottom. There are six community latrines for 300 families that are living near Vambay colony. These latrines always overflow, and sewage often enters huts located nearby.

Ch. Korlaiah, who used to pull rickshaw for a square meal, is one of the worst sufferers of the overflowing sewer. After being relocated here, he suffered paralytic stroke. Now, he cannot go to work, says S. Rajulamma, his daughter. “We have simply been thrown on the streets.

There are no medical facilities. Nearly 60 people died in the last four years due to various ailments, more particularly vector-borne diseases like malaria,” she says. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) began construction of houses for these evicted people under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) programme at Ajithsingh Nagar. The Corporation promised “us” to provide houses in one year. But, it’s more than four years, nothing has materialised, says, V. Ramudu, another hut dweller, who works as a manual labourer at a JNNURM housing site.

CPI(M) floor leader in VMC Ch. Babu Rao says that the corporation has no proper policy for relocation of the people.

It has been violating the UN Habitat policy, which stresses in situ development. But, the people were shifted to places where there are no minimum facilities, he adds. The relocation of encroachers hogged the limelight once again when VMC attempted to evict people living on road margins near Durgapuram.

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