Indian Express 25.09.2009

Slum project will help, not hinder: Dharavi MLA

The Rs 15,000-crore redevelopment project that many residents believe could oust them from their home and hearth may have redrawn battle lines in parts of Dharavi, but MLA Varsha Gaikwad is confident of her chances of getting re-elected.

“We have done enough work in Dharavi for people to know that this is not just another slum rehabilitation project. We’ve been showing people a CD in which a bureaucrat explains the details of the project, that this will be a new township. People want development,” she insists.

The project envisages razing existing shanties in Dharavi, numbered at nearly a lakh, to tap the potential of the vast, centrally located real estate to build a new Dharavi that will mostly comprise commercial spaces mirroring the adjoining Bandra-Kurla Complex. While several thousand industrial units, including large ones engaged in leather works and small home industries making chikki, papad and other food items, will be rehabilitated in the new township, several hundreds working in hazardous industries like the slum’s iconic recycling units are afraid they will be relocated. The Shiv Sena has, in the last couple of years, cashed in on the brewing discontent, promising and demanding larger free homes for the slumdwellers and other things.

But Gaikwad alleges other parties have only stoked partisan politics. “They will return to their Marathi manoos agenda soon,” she says of the Sena-led opposition to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. “Our plank here has always been development and rights for slumdwellers, whether it was issuing of photo-passes in 1976 or extension of protection until 2000,” she adds.

Her first term has been busy: she’s pioneered an urban health centre in Dharavi, the first civic centre inside the slum with facilities ranging from X-ray to sonography; she’s also organised government-certified courses for about 700 Dharavi women to be trained as beauticians, bakers, manufacturers of soft toys, zardozi workers, etc. “Aam aadmi ke liye sirf Congress hai,” she says.

With Dharavi’s large Dalit population, a candidate from the RPI could have posed a serious challenge, but with a JD (U) candidate against her, not many foresee a tough fight, opposition to the redevelopment project notwithstanding.

The Times of India 14.09.2009

City corporators to go for slum study

Minati Singha, TNN 13 September 2009, 11:18pm IST

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to study and emulate ideal slum management practices, a 20-member team of delegates, including MLAs, corporators and slum-dwellers are on a week-long trip to major cities across the country. The delegates will be visiting, among other cities, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Housing and urban development minister Badri Narayan Patra said, "Like all urban centres, the fast growing number of slums has been a problem for cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur. So we have decided to learn and replicate the best practices initiated in public-private-partnership mode in rehabilitation, housing and other services in slums."

According to officials, while the city has 229 slums in 2004, the number has increased to 377, recording a growth rate of 78 per cent. The growing number of slums now has become the headache for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) as 281 slums about 75 percent are unauthorized and located in the heart of the city. Moreover, two new slums are adding to the capital every month with over 30 percent of the city's population living in these slums and the number is increasing by the day, according to a BMC survey.

"The people staying in slums also have the right to quality life and basic amenities and we cannot just throw them out. But at the same time, we cannot allow growth of slums along the major roads of cities. The state government will initiate development projects and give affordable homes for these people," Patra said.

The minister also said, "As part of our commitment to the High Court, we are rehabilitating the urban poor who were evicted from several parts of the city."

Leader of the delegation and Bhubaneswar Centre MLA Bijay Kumar Mohanty said, "There is no dearth of funds, but we must plan something that will be sustainable and will match to the growth of the cities."