CM refuses to stop bulldozer

NAGPUR: Chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has rejected a demand made by Congress-NCP MLAs from Mumbai to stop the ongoing demolition of slums in the metropolis and regularise slums constructed before 2000.
Deshmukh said that since the law prohibited post-1995 slums, the bulldozer could not be halted.
He assured the MLAs that he would convene a meeting and "look into the matter" after the current session of the legislature.
The MLAs led by Naseem Khan and Kripashankar Singh, both former ministers, drew the chief minister’s attention to the joint election manifesto issued by the Congress-NCPpromising protection to pre-2000 hutments.
Deshmukh said that to extend this protection, the law would have to be amended, and for this he would have to come before the legislature. He told TOI that the manifesto will be implemented over five years and not immediately.
Although Congress activists say that Deshmukh''s action will alienate lakhs of hutment dwellers, some MLAs told TOI on condition of anonymity that they are opposed to the regularisation demand. If this request is granted, the cut-off year willhave tobe extended after every assembly election, they said.
A suburban Congress MLA said that one has to think about the future of the city as a whole and not only about vote banks. The Shiv Sena and BJP are opposed to regularisation of post-1995 hutments.