Posh areas spruced up, slums left in the lurch

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 20

Even as the city has a high number of slum localities, yet the local authorities seem more focused towards posh areas.

Labourers were seen engaged in replacing cemented tiles with the coloured ones in the C-block of Ranjeet Avenue. The area has wide metalled roads with abundant parking space.

A Health Department survey conducted a couple of years ago to assess the hygiene level among people had stated that there were about 46 slum areas and 53 migratory population pockets in the city. Population in these areas is also contributing to more than 30 per cent of the total patient load in TB and other diseases in 2011-2012.

Vigilant residents have voiced their concerns over this unreasonable investment on posh areas when many parts of the city cry for basic amenities.

A resident, Kulwant Singh Ankhi, said it was highly unwise on the part of the authorities and agencies like the Amritsar Improvement Trust and the Municipal Corporation to repeatedly invest precious money of the public exchequer in a single locality which already had state-of-the-art facilities. He added that this led to the neglect of other localities, especially slums, which were bereft of basic civic amenities. He said such a practice was being carried out in the city when its elected MLA, Anil Joshi, was the Local Bodies Minister.

Another city resident, Sawider Singh, said there were many localities in the city which remained under a cover of darkness at night without street lights. The roads were full of potholes and required immediate carpeting to save commuters from bumpy rides, he said.