Members of Campaign for Housing and Tenurial Rights (CHATRI), a Hyderabad-based NGO, on Saturday urged the CRDA Commissioner to include ‘housing for urban poor’ in the capital master plan.
In a letter addressed to the Commissioner, CHATRI members highlighted the ‘Singapore model of development’ that made the City State what it is today. “It was because of its inclusiveness, wherein all citizens, including its working classes, were provided access to adequate housing, quality education, health care and transport facility, that Singapore became a Smart city,” the letter said.
“We are not against the government’s new capital plans, and we will extend our complete support to it. If it is planning to build a ‘Smart’ capital, it should include farmers, the landless poor, construction workers and the scores of other under-privileged sections in its scheme of things,” said CHATRI convenor Varghese Theckanth.
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He added that it was imperative that the estimated 25 per cent of the unorganised working sections, which formed part of the local population, was provided with land, housing and other basic amenities.
Mr. Theckanth also urged the government to formulate the Andhra Pradesh Slum Dwellers Property Rights Act, which was in force in the undivided State, to help the urban poor. “The Bill needs to be implemented here also to protect the rights of the working population in the unorganised sector in the urban conglomeration in and around the new capital city. The authorities should also prevent eviction of the urban poor from this region,” he said.
NGO calls for inclusion of ‘housing for urban poor’ in capital master plan