Over 15 years later, Pimpri-Chinchwad’s slum-free plan remains a non-starter

In November last year, the civic administration intended to start the rehabilitation plan at slums in Dapodi and Gandhinagar area of Pimpri. However, the administration met with stiff resistance from the slum-dwellers and the landowners.

Politicians too stepped in and as a result, the PCMC administration was pegged on the backfoot. The administration shelved the plan to rehabilitate the slum-dwellers, for the time being.

PCMC joint city engineer Ashok Bhalkar said, “Our move to get the slum rehabilitation plan going in Dapodi and Pimpri was stalled by protesting slum-dwellers and landowners. While slum-dwellers feared that they wouldn’t get justice under the plan, the landowners were not ready to part with their land unless a big sum was paid to acquire their plots on which the slums had come up.”

The slum-dwellers feared that once they were evicted, they might not get any accommodation. They insisted that they should be rehabilitated at the same spot, he said.

“The landowners were equally aggressive on the price front of their land. They were demanding 100 per cent money for their plots while under the Slum Rehabilitation Act we can pay them only 25 per cent of the Ready Reckoner rates of the government. We can pay them as per the rules. We cannot go beyond that,” Bhalkar added.

There are collectively over 100 landowners in both Gandhinagar and Dapodi. Dapodi hutments are based on over 10 hectare of land while Gandhinagar slums occupy over 6 hectare land. “Our plan was to construct flats under the Slum Rehabilitation Act and hand them over to the slum-dwellers. Instead of giving it to the builders, PCMC had decided to become the developer itself so that we can ensure better facilities to the slum-dwellers,” he said.

The PCMC administration said it made all efforts to convince the slum-dwellers and landowners but could not make any headway. “We held repeated talks with them for a year. Even local politicians joined in but we failed to break the ice. The slum-dwellers remained firm and refused to move away. The landowners too refused to budge from the higher price that they sought for their respective pieces of land,” said Bhalkar.

In all, Pimpri-Chinchwad has 74 declared slums and 20 undeclared ones. “A declared slum means the residents there hold proper photo passes issued by the civic authorities. They get the civic facilities. The civic administration conducts a survey of such slums and keeps relevant data and information about them. Photo passes are not issued, neither surveys are conducted, in undeclared slums,” Bhalkar explained.

Officials said some slums in Pimpri-Chinchwad are based on private land, some encroached on civic land and there are also many slums of MIDC land.

Bhalkar said since the rehabilitation plan has failed to take off, the civic administration is considering various options. “One of the options is allowing the Slum Rehabilitation Authority of the state government to acquire the land and carry out the rehabilitation plan. This is at the discussion stage, nothing is finalised. But we still intend to make another effort as PCMC feels it will be in the interest of the slum-dwellers if the civic body becomes the developer rather than handing over the project to the Slum Authority,” he said.

Former Dapodi corporator Chandrakanta Kamble said, “There are two major demands of the people of Dapodi. One is that they should get over 500 square feet flats and not 339 square feet as the PCMC is promising. Besides, if there are three families living in a hut, all of them should get separate flats. But the PCMC does not come clean on this front.”

She said Dapodi has seven slums with a population of 20,000. “The survey was held in 2002. Since then, the rehabilitation plan is pending,” she added.

Sitting corporator Asha Shendge said, “The slum-dwellers are demanding that they be given a 500 square feet flat which is not possible under the SRA norm. Besides, there are at least four slum areas where the people do not want any rehabilitation plan as they have pucca houses.”

Shendge said the PCMC’s contention that private landowners are demanding big amounts is not true. “I don’t think there are major private landowners. Most of the slum-dwellers hold one or two gunthas of land. They all want adequate compensation for their land. Many are insisting on rehabilitation at the same spot,” she said.