The State government has issued the GO 463 with the good intention of providing houses to slum dwellers, but the conditions and riders go against the spirit of the order, former bureaucrat E.A.S. Sarma has said.
Addressing a meeting of slum dwellers organised by Visakhapatnam Slum Dwellers Association and Progressive Organisation for Women at the Mahatma Gandhi statue near the GVMC on Tuesday, Mr. Sarma pointed out that the conditions mentioned in the GO were not in favour of slum dwellers.
“The GO has six or seven conditions based on which the land can not be regularised in the favour of slum dwellers. The conditions include the land should not be of high value, it can be made useful for public purpose, objectionable encroachment, it should not be on a hill or beside water body or in catchment area. The officials concerned should realise that the land were encroached by the dwellers over five decades ago at most of the places, and the then and present conditions can be different,” he pointed out.
‘In situ development’
Moreover, he said, if the government really intends to benefit the poor slum dwellers, then it should remove the conditions and develop slum ‘in situ’ rather than pushing the dwellers 25 km away from their present place of living. “This will hit their livelihood,” he said.
According to Lakshmi of POW, the authorities concerned had earlier shifted a number of slums to far away places, and this had affected the livelihood of the people.
“We urge the government to remove the conditions in the GO and plan in situ development of the slums,” she said, adding that the conditions stand as obstacles for slum dwellers who intend to apply for a house site.