Sunday, Jun 15, 2003
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New Delhi
By Our Staff Reporter
It has been over a year now that the Congress was voted to power in the civic body, but so far its leaders have only added to the chaos left behind by their predecessors, the BJP. With 20 to 30 lakh people living in slum clusters, the Slum Wing of the MCD has neither developed any policy nor taken any measures to mitigate the inhumane condition they live in. While primary health care facilities and sanitary conditions in the slums have deteriorated in the past one-year, the "slum mafia'' has only strengthened its grip since April 2002 when the Congress came to power. In fact, it is the various lobbies within the Congress which are working against each other in the Slum Department for their petty political interests. It is widely known that a Councillor in West Delhi -- because of political rivalry -- has been instrumental in uprooting slum clusters from the constituency of a senior Minister, who on the other hand is trying his best to ensure that the clusters are not relocated till the Assembly elections. Same is the case with the some other leaders in the Congress. How concerned the Congress is about the poor living in slum clusters can be gauged from the fact that in the past one year, as many as four Slum Commissioner has been appointed. The frequent shifting of Slum Commissioners here has been due to the pressures and pulls inside the party. While the Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, and her Cabinet colleagues have woken up only now -- a few months before the Assembly elections -- they remained a mute spectator to the relocation of slum clusters which has been going on unabated. In fact, none of its leaders objected or tried to formulate a policy even when the revision of electoral exercise was going no. According the Delhi Election Commission, they had not received any request from the Congress leaders at any time during the revision process which concluded in April. Further, no effort was ever made by its leaders to request the Election Commission to make special provision or set up camps in these new resettlement colonies so that their names could be added to the electoral list. ``All this while they have remained a mute spectator to the inhumane shifting of slum people to remote parts of the Capital. These people are uprooted and given a barren piece of land where there are no basic facilities including water, power, transport or a shelter,'' said a social activist associated with Sajha Manch, a non-government organisation working among the slum clusters. ``They have suddenly realised that a sizable chunk of their traditional vote bank in some crucial constituencies would not be able to vote this time, thus hitting their electoral prospects,'' he activist said.
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