Thousands of Slum Dwellers demonstrated and submitted Memorandum demanding Land
Patta in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack
On 5.10.16, thousands of Slum Dwellers hailed
from 30 Slums of Bhubaneswar, capital
city of Odisha and Bhubaneswar organised Rally and Demonstration under banner of Odisha Basti Sangharsh
Samiti at Lower PMG demanding land patta
. A five member delegation led by
Kailash Pradhan, Basti Leader of Shantipali Basti submitted 2400 applications
collected from different Bastis to Chief Minister demanding early supply of Land Patta to Slum
Dwellers. Besides that they also
submitted memorandum appealing to Chief Minister to frame Land Policy for
Slum-dwellers, reservation of land for poor
as per Odisha Govt. Land Settlement Rules, 1983 and recovery
of land from the people who
have encroached or illegally
acquired or taken multiple plot
by filling false affidavit.
The Rally was addressed by Pradip Pradhan, eminent RTI
Activist, Sri Prafulla Samantary, Convener of Lokashakti Abhijan, Sri Pratap Sahu, Convener of Basti Sangharsh Samiti, Sri
Sachikant Pradhan and many Slum leaders of
different Bastis like Kailash Pradhan, Sushma Singh, Gourahari Nayak,
Rajani Das, Muna Das etc.
.
In memorandum submitted to Chief
Minister, the Slum Dwellers have
highlighted their plight and
suffering for years together due to
sewerage problem, bad sanitation, lack of drinking water, electricity, road connectivity etc. Though they have been staying in slums since
30 to 40 years, the Govt. has not considered allotting land in their name.
Rather, they have been forcibly displaced
by the police and administration several times in order to give land to
corporate house or business people. Due
to Govt.’s apathy, they do not have permanent address. Now, the Govt. will destroy 24 Bastis for
Smart City and plan to settle slum dwellers in small apartment houses constructed under Rajiv Awas Yojana renamed as Pradhanmantri Awas Yojana. This
arrangement is not acceptable to Slum Dwellers, as a family
cannot be accommodated in that
so small house.
In support of their demand,
they have also stated that the
State Govt. has allotted land
to Ministers, MLAs, Officers, Private Educational Institutions like KIIT
, NGOs, Temples, Mathas at subsidised rate
or free of cost. Citing few examples,
they have pointed out that
Achyut Samant led KIIT has been
allotted 150 acres of Govt. land at
highly subsidised price out of it 85 acres of land acquired by
Achyut Samant is illegal.
Similarly Loyala School has been allotted 12 acres of land free of cost.
DAV School, Sai International School and
Private Medical colleges have been allotted land at subsidised price. The State
Govt. has sold 58 acres of valuable land to DLF company
in Chandaka area at throw away price.
If all the
rice people, Ministers, MLAs,
Officers have been allotted land, then
why slum dwellers will not be allotted
minimum “40 x 30” sq. Ft. Land in Bhubaneswar.
The State Govt. should follow the
same legal procedure to allot land to
slum dwellers.
The Rally led by Slum leaders and Social Activists started
from Lower PMG and reached at
lower PMG covering Raj Mahal.
Pradip Pradhan
M-9937843482
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