The Indian Express         30.11.2013

VMC demolishes over 250 hutments to build garden

Over 250 hutments, that are part of a slum in Gotri locality, were demolished on Friday by the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC). The slums will make way for a public park.

The demolitions that were part of the plan to make the city slum-free began on Thursday. According to VMC officials, the slum dwellers living in the hutments were allotted flats last year under the slum rehabilitation schemes across the city, especially in the Tandalja area.

Officials also claimed that the slums in the area were being used by tenants of the owners, and in some cases, the owners were found living in the slums after renting out their allotted flats. However, the plot, which is originally reserved for a public swimming pool, may be converted into a public garden. A proposal to effect the change has been moved by Municipal Councilor Rajesh Ayare and is pending for VMC's approval.

"There is a high-tension wire passing through the area and it is risky to have a swimming pool there. It would be better to convert the area into a public garden as there is no green space in the area. I have requested the VMC to transfer this land into the green belt so that the garden can be developed accordingly," said Ayare.

The Indian Express         30.11.2013

Civic body speeds up work undertaken to rehabilitate hawkers

As per the orders of Supreme Court and directions from the state government, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has speeded up the work of survey and registration of hawkers for their rehabilitation.

"The civic body has undertaken biometric survey for hawkers. Simultaneously, committees of hawker representatives and civic officers is being formed in each ward office to identify locations for rehabilitation of hawkers in their respective areas," said Additional Municipal Commissioner Rajendra Jagtap.

He said other civic bodies of the state are approaching PMC to understand steps taken to register hawkers and rehabilitate them. "The PMC is well ahead of other civic bodies in implementing the Supreme Court order," said Jagtap.

Madhav Jagtap, incharge of anti-encroachment department, PMC, said, "The civic body has decided to use unique software to bring transparency in the process. Under the system, agency appointed by the civic body will identify all the hawkers ward-wise and record their thumb impressions and collect their photographs with their respective stalls."

Currently, there are 22,000-25,000 hawkers in the civic limits who operate without licences and permissions.

"Once the data is ready, the committees set up to relocate hawkers will start identifying places for setting up markets for hawkers," said Jagtap.

The new system will be online with GIS Maps where complete ward-wise onsite survey of all hawkers and stall owners in PMC limit will be available with thumb impressions, photographs, UID information and GIS attributes. Smart cards would be distributed to hawkers.