Work to be done
* Introduce legislation to address the issue of unlicensed hawkers and hawking zones
* Address the issue of spread of encroachments on open spaces and along drains
* Put an end to perennial flooding in post-monsoon disease hotspots like Guzderband, Behrampada, Bharat Nagar

At the Muslim dominated slum enclave in Behrampada, residents can spend hours singing paeans for late MP Sunil Dutt, the man who had stood by them through the riots and demolition threats. Opinion about his daughter, however, is always a crisp “she has a clean image and we respect her as she is Dutt saheb’s daughter.”

Probe a little further and shanty dwellers spanning from Behrampada in Bandra (East) to Juhu feel she lacks involvement at the grassroots level. “During his tenure, Dutt saheb would visit our area at least 50 times in 5 years; his daughter is hardly to be seen ever,” said Ganesh Jain, who runs a jewellery shop in the area.

Forty-one-year-old Priya Dutt has had to deal with a lot of such comparisons since she won the Mumbai North-West constituency in November 2005 riding on the sympathy wave after her father’s demise early that year.

“Whoever has visited her office in their individual capacity has benefited. For instance, she helped out slum dwellers who were affected by the road widening at Juhu galli or the Irla nallah demolitions once they approached her with their grievances,” said Hyder Ali, a slum activist from Juhu galli who believes that Dutt otherwise has been oblivious to the ground realities in her constituency.

“My style of functioning has been very different from my father’s. I’m sure there are a lot of slum people saying that I don’t lie down in front of a bull dozer like my father did, but I am a lot more practical. I would never generally visit a slum or go meet some citizens’ group unless I have an agenda. Every Tuesday my office is full of people from the slums who approach me with their problems. If I have to visit the slums to attend to a particular problem I do it,” said Dutt.

It is perhaps this deviation that has antagonized most of the MLAs in her constituency. Unlike her father who would distribute his MPLAD funds as per the demands put forth by his MLAs, Priya allocates her funds directly to whatever cause she thinks is fit to receive the funds. The distribution of completed works using her MP funds show that she has spent her funds on beautification of open grounds and similar works (14), water pipelines (8), drainage passages (10), roads (6), toilets (7), footpath (5), borewells (5), computers for schools (3) and tennis court (2). Besides these, her funds have been used for constructing a gymnasium, a welfare centre, a balwadi, a stadium and installing a water purifier at a school.

Ask her about the need to spend money on causes which even a corporator or MLA can fund, she says, “But these are works that someone needs to do. Had I had more funds at my disposal, I would have spent them on bigger works.”

Dutt’s constituency is conspicuous for its swish upper middle classes and Bollywood stars living alongside the teeming slums. And the dichotomy means that pleasing one set would end up in alienating the other, be it on the issue of slums or that of hawkers. Like her intervention in the issue of Irla nallah slums resettlement which earned her the goodwill of slumdwellers but the ire of others.

“The entire area used to get flooded as it was impossible to clean the drains due to the slums. Thanks to a legal battle by residents, the BMC was to resettle the slums. But Dutt stepped in to prevent it until the end of monsoons and we had to bear the brunt of the floods again,” said filmmaker and local activist Ashok Pandit who also has the same bone to pick with Dutt as residents in the slums, that of her not being ever seen doing the rounds of her constituency. “I have written to her about my issues by giving her my vote but I have never seen her once in Juhu scheme and JVPD area, not even when our area was inundated in 2005 and the year after,” he said.

Other residents like Shyama Kulkarni from the local citizens’ trust term Dutt as being more approachable than her father. “She gave us a patient hearing when we took the Hill Road hawkers issue to her but she lacked the political will to do anything about it later,” she said.

In her defence, Dutt states that the censure arises from the divide that exists between the two segments in her constituency. “In their fight against hawkers and slums, everyone is concerned about how something is affecting my lane. There are 3 lakh hawkers in Mumbai while only a few thousands of them are licensed. We cannot take their livelihood away,” said Dutt. As for the slums, Dutt doesn’t mice words when it comes to talking about the much-debated SRA scheme. “SRA is a mess. It is a very haphazard way of rehabilitation and I do not believe that anyone should be given free houses. SRA needs to be scrapped. The only solution is low-income housing,” said Dutt.

In Parliament, Dutt’s attendance has been below average. As far as participation in debates are concerned, she has spoken thrice each time on the issue of child rights and the need to change the school examination system, issues that she says is close to her heart. In her own constituency she has launched a helpline for students following the spate of student suicides in Delhi. “The voice of the child is not heard in the Parliament as they are not our voters,” she says.