Cong may okay ’99 slums for vote gains

MUMBAI: The possibility of ridding the city of its slum sprawl appeared to recede with the Congress party toying with the idea of regularising all slums which had come up by 1999.
The existing policy provides protection to those shanty dwellers whose names figure in the electoral rolls as on January 1995.
With a view to mopping up more votes, prominent Congress activists are pressuring the Democratic Front government to accord protection to slum dwellers of 1999 vintage.
At a meeting held at Motilal Nagar in Santa Cruz recently, minister of state for home (rural) Kripashankar Singh urged chief minister Sushilkumar Shinde to come to the rescue of the 1999 slum dwellers.
He argued that in the 1999 elections, these slum voters had backed the Congress and the party was morally obliged to give them protection.
“We cannot take their votes and not do anything for them,’’ he reasoned. Congress M.P. Sunil Dutt, who was also present at the function, endorsed Mr Singh’s demand. Mr Shinde, while not accepting the demand, promised to consider it.
The Shiv Sena was quick to react to the minister’s demand, lambasting him in its party mouthpiece ‘Saamna’.Mr Singh,who hails from U.P, was accused of trying to legalise the hutments of migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had been pouring into Mumbai. The Sena’s ally, the BJP, also reacted adversely to Mr Singh’s demand.
President of the city unit of the BJP Bhai Girkar told this paper on Sunday that the Congress was destroying the city with its populist policies.
Mr Girkar pointed out that when Vilasrao Deshmukh of the Congress was the chief minister, he had convened an all-party meeting at which it was agreed that the cut-off period would be January,1995. The Congress was now violating that agreement with an eye to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, he alleged.
“The city will have to pay a heavy price for the allegedly short-sighted policy of the Congress,’’ he warned. Mr Girkar noted that the government had not been able to do anything even for those who met the 1995 criterion.
The idea of giving legal protection to slum dwellers was first mooted more than 20 years ago by the then Congress minister of state for housing Prabhakar Kunte, who ensured that all pre-1975 slum dwellers were given legal protection and basic facilities. Subsequently, the cut-off year was extended at least twice and now stands at January 1995.
“We cannot nuke slum dwellers or gas them. They have come from all over India and made Mumbai their home. Their right to livelihood should be recognised. Nobody is protesting when prime land near Sahar airport is doled out to five-star hotels. But when it comes to giving land to the poor, the Sena and the BJP are crying themselves hoarse,’’Mr Singh said.
“We cannot nuke slum dwellers or gas them. They have come from all over India and made Mumbai their home. Their right to livelihood should be recognised’’