VADODARA, June 25: City-based voluntary organisations, including Swashraya and Sahiyar, have criticised the Vadodara Municipal Corporation for evicting 135 families of slum-dwellers from Chhani without providing a proper alternative site.Members of the organisations, who were a part of the fact-finding team, which visited slum settlements and alternative sites in the city earlier this week, called on Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Administration) H S Patel and demanded that the slum-dwellers be provided proper alternative site.
Bina Srinvivasan, Rohit Prajapati, Trupti Shah, M S Mansuri and others criticised the civic body for displacing the slum-dwellers for a second time in a fortnight. They also said that the alternative site was a nullah. Patel is reported to have assured to get the nullah levelled.
The representatives told the DyMC that the slum-dwellers were unwilling to shift as the site was unhabitable. Patel is reported to have agreed to show the site to the slum-dwellers and the Urban Land Ceiling Collector.
Armed with hockey sticks and three police vans, the VMC's encroachment removal squad had on Wednesday demolished the kachha huts. The representatives alleged that the operation was carried out in violation of human rights.
Meanwhile, the VMC on Thursday cleared 50,000 square feet area falling in the road alignment in Tarsali. The land was occupied by bharwads.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.