Rehabilitate slum dwellers: MAD

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, March 4

Dehradun’s student activist group “Making a Difference by Being the Difference” (MAD) has expressed resentment over the ongoing slum politics in Dehradun.

Addressing a press conference in Dehradun today, Abhijay Negi founder chairman, MAD, questioned the sincerity of politicians towards the betterment of slums in Dehradun. He said holding rallies for slum dwellers was not the solution.

Negi said while MAD believed that while slum dwellers had a right to better living, the demand for regularisation of slums deserved condemnation. He said slums must be rehabilitated as it was important to revive rivers like the Bindal and the Rispana which are the lungs of Dehradun.

He pointed out that both streams were the hotspots of encroachment where slum dwellers live in the most inhuman conditions without access to basic sanitation. He said MAD had in its possession surveys conducted by Britishers, recorded in their memoirs which have recorded the all-season flow in Dehradun’s streams. He said today these rivers were encroached.

He also reminded that the state government had in February last year promulgated a notification paving the way for a task force to submit a report in four months’ time on slums rehabilitation. “However, without any progress on the task force’s front, the government suddenly revised its policy and constituted a Slum Areas Development Commission, currently chaired by legislator Rajkumar. This commission in contrast to the task force has been given no mandate of rehabilitation which shows that the government is not yet clear on its very policy as regards the slums”, he pointed out.

Abhijay Negi said MAD would now begin a strong campaign to generate awareness among all Doonites about the pathetic conditions of slums and the importance of their rehabilitation. “We are going to begin a signature campaign throughout the city which will be later presented to Chief Minister Harish Rawat”, he said.

MAD volunteers Shardul Singh Rana, Prachi Batola and Saurabh Nautiyal were prominent present at the press conference.