Odisha: Slum dwellers to ‘decide’ fate of Berhampur mayor

BERHAMPUR: The slum dwellers, who make up about 30% of the total voters in the Silk City, will play a decisive role in the ensuing election for the post of Berhampur Municipal Corporation’s (BeMC)’s mayor. The candidates of all major political parties are trying hard to woo them.
Officials said as many as 174 slum pockets come under the BeMC, while 18,844 households with a population of 94,743 are spread over its 42 wards.The number of voters in the BeMC area is a little over 2.55 lakh. Of the total slums, the BeMC delisted 70 last year, while the residents of 16 have been relocated and provided with houses under different government welfare schemes.
Though some of them have been rehabilitated, many others are still waiting for a pucca house. Rights activists alleged that the families that have been evicted from the slum areas near ponds, following an order of the National Green Tribunal, are living in penury.
“The case of Uttar Mukhi Sahi is a case in point,” Amlan Mishra, the state coordinator of the All India Lawyers’ Association for Justice (Odisha), said. After interacting with the likes of Sahi in the city, the AILAJ on Monday released the slum dwellers’ manifesto here ahead of the March 24 election.
“At a time when the government is claiming to provide land rights to the slum dwellers under its much-hyped Jaga Mission, the BeMC authorities have evicted them from the slums near the ponds to make the water bodies free of encroachments,” Bhagaban Sahu, a senior advocate, said.