Congress staged a massive protest rally in Dehradun against the state government’s policy on slums on Saturday. Braving heavy downpour, a large number of party leaders, workers and slum dwellers assembled at the state Congress headquarters to participate in the march to the residence of the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
As the administration which had earlier made elaborate security arrangements in view of the march to CM residence attempted to stop it near Hathibarkala police post a minor skirmish broke out. In the melee that ensued, some of the agitators managed to break through the barrier erected by the security personnel. However, the police personnel controlled the situation swiftly and stopped the surging crowd from moving ahead.
Addressing the party workers, the state Congress chief Pritam Singh said that the state government has cheated the slum dwellers through the ordinance it has brought. “The state government is taking the slum dwellers for a ride as it has no intention to give ownership rights to the people living in the slum areas as initiated by the Congress-helmed government. It is just biding its time for the next three years,” he said. He reminded the people that the Congress government had passed an act on the status of the slums in 2016 to provide ownership rights to the slum dwellers and had set up a budget of Rs 400 crore for its execution. “But the BJP government has done nothing to execute the act,” he alleged.
lashing out at the state government, a senior Congress leader Indira Hridayesh said that the state government could have saved the slums through enforcing the Act 2016. “But is has bungled,” she said. She warned the state government of a full-blown movement if it fails to provide ownership rights to the slum dwellers.
Among the senior leaders present during the rally were Dinesh Agarwal, Hira Singh Bisht, Mantri Prasad Naithani, Mamta Rakesh, Surya Kant Dhasmana and Raj Kumar.