Out of a total of 66,000 slum families of the Rourkela city, only 16,000 are supplied with drinking water. This amounts to violation of the human rights of the citizens, said Basti Suraksha Samiti (BSS) president Biren Senapati here on Tuesday in a Press briefing.
Speaking on the effort of his organisation to ensure welfare of the people of Rourkela, especially the slum dwellers, Senapati said from December 1 last year, his organisation has been organising meetings and debating various issues to make the common men conscious.
The campaign would be concluded on January 30 (Martyr’s Day) with a mass satyagraha in front of the Rourkela ADM office from morning 6 am to 6 pm. And a memorandum will also be submitted to the Governor through the Rourkela ADM tha same day, said Senapati.
The various demands the BSS has been pressing for include implementation of Rajiv Awas Yojan (RAY) in city soon, provision of grains at subsidised rates to all the poor people, introduction of Ward Sabha like Gram Sabha, supply of drinking water, reduction of 30 per cent of the electricity tariff, declaration of Rourkela as a Swasthya Zilla, employment of local youths, construction of second bridge over river Brahmani at Panposh and making Brahmani pollution free, among others.
Further, Senapati said although the Central Government has been providing huge funds, they are not being properly spent for development of the locality. He said that `6 crore is lying with the Rourkela Municipality for solid waste management but the project is yet to take off due to problems in arrangement of land.