Congress plans rally to CM residence seeking ownership rights for slum dwellers

While the State Government has brought in an ordinance to prevent eviction of most slum dwellers, the Congress is planning to take out a rally to the Chief Minister’s residence on Saturday demanding ownership rights for slum dwellers.

After the high court of Uttarakhand ordered removal of encroachments from along the banks of the Rispana river in Dehradun, the authorities had started issuing eviction notices to slum dwellers deemed to be occupants of encroachments. This had elicited a strong reaction from both the dwellers and politicians. Since successive State Governments have so far failed to rehabilitate slum dwellers in other locations, the State Government brought in an ordinance to prevent most of them from being evicted. Not to be left behind, the Congress which has already held demonstrations in support of the slum dwellers is planning to take out a rally to the Chief Minister’s residence here on Saturday. The Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Committee president Pritam Singh will be leading the rally in support of the demand for ownership rights to slum dwellers in the state. The rally is slated to be held from the Parade Ground to the Chief Minister’s residence.

The PCC chief chaired a meetingon Thursday with senior party members at the Congress Bhawan to discuss the protest strategy. Informing about this, the PCC general secretary (organisation) Vijay Saraswat said that the Bharatiya Janata Party State Government is misleading the public on the issue of slums in its anti-encroachment drive. He said that following pressure from the Congress, the State Government is trying to mislead the public by talking of bringing an ordinance in the Vidhan Sabha. If the State Government was really concerned about the slums, it would have carried forward the process of regularisation of slums according to the gazette brought out during the term of the Congress government. The BJP is concerned about votes and not the poor public, he alleged.

It should be mentioned here that while the issues pertaining to slums and slum dwellers are related to civic facilitation, the environment and state of rivers, welfare and health of the public along with law and order situation, observers point out that the successive State Governments have focused mainly on the political aspects of slums and the votes which the slum dwellers account for.