Was passing by a so called slum which has come up adjecent to the ring road in front of PES engineering college..this was BWSSB property not too long ago..but a slum has come up in its place..
Or do we call it a slum at all?! Cos one can see a line of call centre vehicles parked on the roads along with the concrete mixers..and most of these houses have a DTH dish (SunDirect/Tatasky etc) on their mangled roof tops..the lanes carved out are of 5-6 ft wide and have pucca electric lines(probably w/o meters)!
So how do these slums get formed?
Its the local politicians greed for power which encourages such slums in various part of the city. The modus operandi..
- Identify unused governament land or even private
- Get a group of people put up temporary huts
- A karnataka flag with Dr Ambedkar's photo is put up
- A DSS or similar orgs board is put up
- The local politician sponsors a group activity like an pooja/orchestra for Ganesha or similar festival
- During the function there will be distriution of ration cards, so that they can become legal voters
- The slum dwellers by this time put up semi permanent structures with asbestos roof etc
- Another function after the elections..the 'kuris' will get hakku patra or land papers for their 10X10
- The slum flourishes..probably they will also find space for a small shrine
One other such slum is right next to the Mysore road TTMC in Guddadahalli, this space was originally owned by KSRTC and the land was to be used for building appartments for employees of KSRTC.
But now its a flourishing slum..thanks to the local politician whos vote bank is secured for the coming years!
How do we stop these things and bring some order to the situation?
We have the slum clearrence board to build homes for these slum dwellers..cant they swing into action and instead of give the land papers..cant proper house be built in a smaller area..going vertical that is..and use the rest of the land for other facilities like parks and public toilets etc for their own good??
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neo slums
as long as politicians lure the backward communities into the mainstream social community for vote bank politics, middle class communities have to pay the price of this.
one has to know that economic liberations or economic upliftment will not lead to mental upliftment or mental grooming.
that is the government has encouraged economic upliftment by granting reservations in all aspects of occupation and education, but does this lead to mental grooming or can he or she of such a background literally groom himself or herself to conduct in an educated manner, the decorum of decency is never there from such community.
For the sake of gainng huge majority in election, they promise to grant licenses on unauthorised land by converting them into slum area... etc
Only if we scrap reservations, votebank politics, only then can we expect some change in the society overall...
neo slums have become a social threat - leading to enormous social sins in respect to hygenie, cleanliness and general safetly.
How can we stop this? just debating over online or addressing the media is also not worthwhile.
The educated masses, the locals over there should join together and ask the corporator to take immediate action, but again i wonder how fruitful this would be???
Live and Let Live
BWSSB property?
this was BWSSB property not too long ago
So, now the BWSSB looks the other way? Would it be worth-while to raise an RTI query as to what the status of this property is?
update..super structure coming up..
There is a bigger twist to it now..govt is constructing 1000 dwellings apartments there as part of the slum rehabilitation program covered under JnNurm!
They have relocated the slum dwellers further down the road in temp sheds..and again I see them everyday lazing out in the sun doing nothing!
On the other hand..there are hired labourers from else where working at the site building houses for them! Cant they use the same labour for whom they are building the houses for? After all they are supposed to be into construction themselves!
its 1910 houses for slum dwellers!
Check this pic..its a whooping 1910 houses..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23160983@N03/5450934796/
Slum near Cambridge Layout
There is one such slum near cambridge layout entrance on the perhipery of ISRO quarters compound wall. A site owner is not able to use his land because it will block entrance to the slum, that is the power of these guys
Slum problem
The slum problem blame squarely lies on the BDA and other planning authorities. It is an urban migration problem and cannot be tackled by local solutions (even if they are locally solved it will just crop up someplace else).
People have commented on how slum people occupy government land illegally... but tell me, what other solution do they have? This is a city that plans elaborate layouts in hundreds of acres that will eventually house some 20,000 people every 5-6 years !! The population of the city is growing by 2 lakhs every year. Why don't you protest that ? A few hundred families in layouts such as HSR or BTM have become crorepatis. The whole of HSR could have been housed in a few multi-storeyed towers. The rest of the land could have been developed as green cover, parks etc. This would also reduce corruption racket of notification/denotification of precious BDA land.
Also, why this obsession that everything should be in Bangalore? IT companies tout that they have changed business model by outsourcing/offshoring... but they can't get out of their comfort zone of Tier-1 cities. If they can move work from distant US, why they can't move it from Bangalore to Hubli? Why they can't innovatively use telecom/video conferencing etc ? And this does not stop with IT companies. Every religious organisation wants acres of lands to house their ashrams and its devotees. Why can't you build your ashrams in Shimoga? Scared that you will not get rich devotees/donors ?
The only solution is stop migration to big cities.
In older layouts like Jayanagar or JP Nagar, the streets are full of illegally parked cars. Perhaps, the slum dwellers should be shifted to these streets after throwing out the cars.
It's our problem!
Ashok,
You have hit the nail on the head. As citizens progressing economically, we are degenerating morally and socially. Our tone has become arrogant and our outlook has turned elitist.
You have rightly said where should these ordinary souls go? Do the state provide them with affordable housing, at least a roof with access to clean drinking water and sanitation? Did BDA in last 30-40 years ever planned or developed layouts that meant for drivers and maids who work in our houses day and night?
Yes, politicians do take advantage of these vulnerable society.
Bengaluru can not become a 'World Class' city if it can not provide reasonable civic amenities to the people how are at the bottom of the economic pyramids?
State has plans to build flyovers, but for what? To help cars move faster? Ready to spend on making traffic junctions signal free? For what? So that cars can travel at greater speed? But no plans to provide that needed affordable mobility?
It is our problem. Lets fix the state, Lets fix the BDA, BBMP and host of other civic agencies. Next time, when politicians make a beeline for our votes, lets ask them what is their manifesto promises to help these ordinary souls. They have no voice which anybody listens to. We are their voice.
Low-cost housing necessary
It is good to see government addressing the need for low-cost housing which had been neglected.
They should not build slums, and government should not build housing for the poor. How can these two things happen together.
May not be able to stop migration to cities because policies are somehow against development in villages.
The whole of HSR could have
The whole of HSR could have been housed in a few multi-storeyed towers.
The new layouts should not have single-story houses. They should be made with multi-story apartments.
In the future importance of cities will certainly reduce. 90% of work done in offices can be done at home with broad-band.