NCHR seminar on slums’
policy held in Ahmedabad
The
National Campaign on Housing Rights (NCHR), Gujarat, organised a seminar
on the proposed national slum policy to evolve an action plan to advance
the housing rights of the urban poor. The seminar was held at St. Xaviers
Social Service Society.
The seminar was chaired
by A U Asnani, advisor to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Other speakers
present during the seminar were Kirti Shah, Director, ASAG and former
deputy commissioner of Ahmedabad, Harobhai Mehta, Senior council in
Gujarat High Court and well known human rights activist, Mihir Desai,
Lawyers Collective, Mumbai and member of National Campaign for Human
Rights and Bhusan Oza.
Speaking on the occasion,
Mr Asnani said that the provisions seem good on paper but it needs to
analysed as to how they are actually effective. He said that a person
living on land - be it privately owned or public - has every right to
get all the basic amenities of living. Rehabilitation of the people
is one of the most crucial issues as there has been a continuous migration
of people from rural to urban areas.
He felt that the land use
policy was defective in India. Providing low cost housing to the poor
would solve the slum problem to a great extent. Mr Mehta, however, opined
that the state and the society were responsible for providing shelter
to its people and a separate committee should be constituted to look
into the matter.
Shah also shared the same
opinion that housing should be a state subject and felt that it was
important to identify the target audience that the slum policy would
cater to.
The speakers were of the
opinion that NGOs should take active part to pressurise the government
to start an effective housing policy for the urban poor.
A proper legislative policy
was needed for further development and the state should take the responsibility
for it.
It was decided that a meeting
would be organised next month to delve further into the progress of
the policy and its criticism.
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