While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP are indulging in a no-holds-barred campaign, the Congress on Wednesday tried to reconnect with slum voters by promising them free and permanent shelters with all basic amenities at their respective locations. The party, which had lost its slum supporters to the newbie AAP in the last Assembly elections, went a step further by releasing a draft of the proposed Housing Act, which it has promised to pass within a year of Government formation.
Releasing a copy of the draft Act, Congress chief spokesperson Ajay Maken said each slum dweller would be provided with either a 25 square metre or 40 sq m freehold shelters. “We want to do financial inclusion of slum dwellers. That’s why the freehold document would be bankable and credit worthy.”
Maken, who is also the party’s campaign committee chairman, said the Government would be holding consultation process with the stakeholders before starting the construction work of the permanent shelters. “The legal document of entitlement of these shelters will be in the name of the women head of the family.”
Maken, who himself is contesting from Sadar Bazar, said those dwellers whose slums fall in dense areas would be provided shelters at within their five-kilometre radius. “All this will be part of our part-II manifesto.”
The Congress sop to jhuggi dwellers is being interpreted in the political circles as the party’s serious attempt to reconnect with those voters who had opted for AAP in the last elections. There are about 25 lakh voters living in about 1,000 clusters in the national Capital. The slum voters play a critical role in 22 of the 70 constituencies in the city. Even Prime Minister Narender Modi had said on his January 10 Ramlila Ground rally that it was his dream to see the slum-free city by 2022.
Jhuggi votebank dates way back to 1977 when the then Prime Minister provided them alternate plots in 48 resettlement colonies. These erstwhile slum dwellers are yet to get the ownership rights of their shelters as they are still lease hold properties. Asked whether the Congress was serious enough to give them ownership rights, Maken said: “We are seriously working in this direction. Once they get freehold certificates, they will automatically get their ownership rights.”