Date:28/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/04/28/stories/2006042816800300.htm

Karnataka - Mysore

Slum dwellers stage protest, seek rehabilitation package

Special Correspondent

`The authorities have gone back on their promise'

Allegations
Each of the 147 families evicted had to deposit Rs. 10,000 for the housing scheme under Ambedkar Awas Yojana

The houses have now been occupied by others

MYSORE: Members of Karnataka Slum Dwellers Welfare Association staged a demonstration in the city on Thursday, demanding allotment of houses at Ramabainagar.

The authorities had not kept their promise to extend a rehabilitation package, they alleged. As many as 147 families who lived in the slums along the railway track in Medar Block had been evicted three years ago with the promise that they would be allotted houses and rehabilitated suitably. Eviction was carried out according to an order issued by the Railways, they said.

The slum-dwellers said that each family was asked to deposit Rs. 10,000 for the housing scheme under Ambedkar Awas Yojana. They were shocked to know that other families had occupied the houses meant for them.

Medar Block residents alleged they had been cheated.

The association leaders said that repeated requests to rehabilitate them or return the amount collected had been ignored. They had been forced to loiter on the streets for the last three years, they said. Accusing the Mysore City Corporation and the revenue authorities of playing havoc with their life, the slum dwellers demanded suitable compensation.

More than 100 families assembled near the MCC office for the protest.

Former Minister Tanvir Sait and former Mayor Dakshinamurthy promised to intervene on their behalf and secure them justice. Mayor Bharathi also met the agitators and received a memorandum from them. She said she would take up the issue with the officials concerned.