Mir Farhat
SRINAGAR, Jan 1: Government has failed to rehabilitate 6.5 lakh slums dwellers who are living in the State without basic amenities of life.
Citing Census data of 2011, the Union Urban Development Ministry in 2014 had identified 6.5 lakh slum dwellers in different districts of the State, which rose by 2.88 lakh between 2001 and 2011.
The census data on slums had identified slum dwellers as those people who live in compact areas in unhygienic environment with inadequate infrastructure and lack proper sanitary and drinking water facilities.
In order to reduce the slum dwellers’ population and provide them with basic amenities of living such as toilets, drinking water and electricity, the Housing and Urban Local Bodies Department of the state had in 2014 decided to rehabilitate them.
Under a scheme of Union Government to rehabilitate these people, the department had planned to develop slum colonies in phases in six districts- Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Jammu, Udhampur and Kathua.
However, a year has passed the rehabilitation has not been started, and the slum dwellers are living in the same condition as before.
“We had heard about our rehabilitation by the Government through media, but no official came to us to inform about it. Our living conditions are same as they were five years ago,” said slum dwellers in Sloina area, commonly known as “Malaysia”.
The Government had said that Rs 5 lakh will provided to each family under the scheme and all the civic facilities will be put in place in these areas.
Significantly, in April 2013, the then Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies, Nawang Rigzin Jora had informed the Legislative Assembly that Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) had sanctioned two housing schemes for houseless families of slum areas for providing dwelling units and allied infrastructure facilities under JNNURM.
Jora had said that under ‘Basic Services to Urban Poor for Mission Cities’ of Jammu and Srinagar five projects three for Jammu and two for Srinagar have been sanctioned and are under implementation.
Joint Director Housing and Urban Local Bodies Departmnet Parvez Ahmad Kakroo told Excelsior the scheme of rehabilitating and developing the slum dwellers got delayed because of the floods, Model Code of Conduct and the change of the Government at the Centre.
“We have completed the identification of slums areas and household surveys. The DPR has also been completed, and very soon we will forward it to the Government of India,” Kakroo said.
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