Residents of various slum areas, who had launched an agitation here on Monday, withdrew it on Tuesday, following an assurance by Minister for Housing M.H. Ambareesh that the government would follow the guidelines provided in the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) while constructing the buildings at Halahalli slum.
The State government had decided to develop Halahalli slum that consists of 712 houses, under various programmes, including the RAY. The government had recently finalised the plan for building 1,335 houses that included construction of a few ‘G Plus 3’ (ground floor plus three floors) residential complexes in the slum area.
However, Halahalli residents were against the construction of multi-storey buildings and they had launched a protest outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Monday to register their protest against the proposal, under the banner of the Mandya City Slum-Dwellers’ Forum.
Mr. Ambareesh met the protesters, held discussions with them and also assured them that their demands would be considered.
The government would construct buildings as per RAY guidelines, he said.
Later, the slum-dwellers announced the withdrawal of protest. The protesters told presspersons that Mr. Ambareesh had promised them to provide title deeds of houses allotted to them, besides ensuring basic amenities in all slum areas here.
The former Minister M.S. Atmananda, Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) leader Guruprasad Keregodu and others were present.
