DDA may house slum dwellers in rented places, not camps
NEWDELHI: After the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) faced resistance during the demolition and eviction drive in Kathputli colony recently, the authority is considering to offer rented accommodation to slum dwellers before demolition instead of shifting them to transit camp still the flats are ready for rehabilitation.
“The first lesson from our experience in Kath put li colony is that we, from now onwards, would go for transit camps. Before setting up camps, we have to struggle to find land in the vicinity of the slum so that slum dwellers readily agree for rehabilitation till their flats are ready. So we would prefer rented accommodation for them so it would be easy to convince them to shift,” said JP Agarwal, principal commissioner (housing), DDA.
The residents of Kath put li colony, whose houses were demolished during a drive on October 30, resisted evacuation so much so that the authorities had to use force to shift them. The plan is to re locate 2,800 families in re developed colony at Kath put li and the rest at EWS flats at Narela. The colony is being demolished to constructmulti-storeybuildings by a private builder, as part of DDA’s Delhi Master Plan 2021.
Officials said that by going for rented accommodation, instead of transit camps, the authority would not need to care about amenities required for livelihood of the slum dwellers.
“The dwellers after living on rent would shift to the redeveloped houses. It would help us save time, money and, on top of that, provide better amenities to the dwellers,” Agarwal said.
The land owning agency intend store locate 475 slum clusters spread across the national capital in the next five years. Delhi has 675 slums out of which 475 are those which exist either on DDA or on the Union government’s land. So far, it has construct ed3,035EWS flats in Kalka jiand1,675EWS in AshokVih ar.