The Indian Express                     10.04.2013

Surat beats metros with sharp drop in number of slum-dwellers

With just nine per cent of its population residing in slums, Surat has the least number of slum-dwellers in terms of percentage when compared to metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi, according to the latest census date shared by the city's civic body chief.

"With just nine per cent of our residents living in slums, we have better off than large cities in the country in terms of percentage of population living in slums," Surat Municipal Commissioner M K Das told The Indian Express.

According to the latest census data, Surat city has a population of 45 lakh, of which about 75,000 stay in slums.

As per the latest census data, Mumbai has 41.3 per cent of its population living in slums, followed by Kolkata (29.6%), Chennai (28.5%) and Delhi (14.6%). Ahmedabad, the biggest city in Gujarat, has 23% of its population living in slums.

In Surat, attempts are being made by the SMC to rehabilitate slum-dwellers into dwellings made for economically weaker sections (EWS). In the last four years, SMC has shifted about 1.5 lakh people to EWS houses in the city.

"We have fixed our target to give basic facilities to all newly added areas in the city with good roads, water and drainage systems. We have freed 38,000 square metres of encroached land of municipal corporation in the city and are carrying out development projects on it. We have also given better facilities to slum-dwellers shifted in EWS quarters, with memorial hall, schools for education, health and hospitals," Das added.