The Dehradun mayor Vinod Chamoli has lambasted the State Government accusing it of playing politics over the issue of the regularisation of slum settlements. Averring that the State Government was misguiding the public, especially the residents of slum settlements, the mayor said that the Government should identify the slum settlements in various categories in addition to which the dimensions of land area on both sides of the river under the river front development project in Dehradun should also be clarified.
Addressing the media at his office at the municipal corporation of Dehradun on Thursday, the Mayor said that the State Government is playing with the sentiments of the people considering the manner in which it is going on about regularisation of slums and awarding land ownership rights to the residents of slum settlements. He further said that so far it has been ascertained that only two slum settlements -- the loharwala slum settlement situated in Cantt Vidhan Sabha constituency area and Macchi ka Talab settlement situated in the Mussoorie Vidhan Sabha constituency area—come under the category eligible for regularisation out of the 100 plus slum settlements listed by the State Government. Referring to the recently held Abhar rally led by the Rajpur Road MlA and chairman of the Uttarakhand State slum development committee Rajkumar, the mayor said that people had been told to come with their valid identity cards to receive plots of land but they had to return disappointed. “The Satat Vikas Sankalp Yatra of the Congress is being used to misguide the people on the issue of regularisation of slum settlements. The State Government and the state slum development committee chairman have been talking about regularisation of slums for about five years now with little concrete being achieved towards meeting this claim. The State had released a tentative list of 102 slum resident beneficiaries on October 8 and out of these, 34 were shortlisted and informed about being awarded legal documents of land ownership (patta) on the occasion of the state foundation day but none have been provided the same so far. The State Government should also clarify whether it intends to facilitate regularisation of slums or award patta land to the slum settlement residents,” said the mayor.
Regarding the river front development project being undertaken along the Rispana and Bindal rivers through the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Corporation (MDDA), the mayor said that the authorities need to clarify how many square metres of land on both sides of the river will be brought within the purview of the river front development work.