State Slum Settlement and Development Committee chairman and Rajpur Road MlA Rajkumar has said that the work of studying the condition of slums, drafting a report and submitting recommendations will be completed within the stipulated time of six months. He, however, said the committee is planning to seek extension from Chief Minister Harish Rawat, to fine tune the report.
He said that the committee had so far held four meetings with the Chief Minister and senior officials. Important issues were discussed in the meeting. “We have decided to convene a meeting on slum settlement and rehabilitation at the Town Hall on November 22. I have visited slum settlements in various parts of Dehradun, Roorkee, and Haridwar. Slums in Ramnagar, Nainital, and Rudrapur will be visited soon. We have been given six months to submit our report with recommendations. Though the report is nearing completion, I will seek extension from the CM for fine-tuning,” he said.
It will be recalled that the committee headed by Rajkumar with Municipal Corporation of Dehradun Mukhya Nagar Adhikari Harak Singh Rawat as member secretary, MCD leader of Opposition Neenu Sehgal, former leader of Opposition in Haridwar municipality Sanjay Sharma, Khajan Pande and Sehila Kakkar would look into the various issues related to slum settlements and their inhabitants, make recommendations and prepare a roadmap for development of slum settlements in the State.
There are 123 identified slum settlements in the State capital Dehradun. The committee will first focus on the slums where the authorities have already provided facilities like roads, drinking water supply and power supply among others.
After this the committee will focus on the slum settlements that have not yet been marked by the authorities. It is pertinent to mention here that apart from the various problems faced by residents of slum settlements, such settlements also cause various problems. Most of them encroach on land, on the riverbanks and riverbeds while causing varied problems in civic facilitation. The residents of slum settlements are also seen as vote banks by some politicians who are known to not only abet and facilitate land encroachment for slum settlements but also actively oppose the thwart attempts by the municipal authorities to remove encroachments.