The recent effort of parading the slum dwellers at a rally in Dehradun was a petty political attempt at solving the problem of mushrooming of slums. Stating this, the head of Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) group, Abhijay Negi said that the demand for regularisation of “all slums” in the city is malafide and deserves condemnation.
Negi said, “Chief Minister Harish Rawat has twice committed publically to MAD’s demand for rehabilitation of slums and revival of streams in Doon valley. While attending MAD’s Chalo Tapkeshwar event on December 21, 2014, the CM had called Bindal and Rispana the two lungs of Dehradun. Both streams are hotspots of encroachment where slum dwellers live in the most inhuman conditions without access to basic sanitation.
Though the slum dwellers might themselves desire property rights to the land they currently reside on, providing them basic amenities on such land illegally occupied is no solution and will in fact create a bigger problem. The State Government had in February last year promulgated a notification paving the way for a task force to submit a report in four months’ time on slums rehabilitation.
However, without any progress on the task force’s front; the Government suddenly revised its policy and constituted a Slum Areas Development Committee, which in contrast to the task force has been given no mandate of rehabilitation which shows that the Government is not yet clear on its very policy as regards the slums.
Previous MNA Harak Singh Rawat had further underlined the fact that nine flat complexes were ready for slum dwellers but his efforts towards rehabilitation were thwarted by political interference. MAD shall now begin a campaign to generate awareness among all Doonites about these issues, also holding a signature campaign in town aimed at the CM,” he said.