A seminar had been organised in Tumkur on Tuesday, by the District Slum Dwellers Welfare Committee at the Town Hall.

Speaking at the seminar, Commissioner of the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board V Ashok said, with co-operation and support from all the members of the society, the slum dwellers can be uplifted in the society.

Both the State and Union Governments have implemented a lot of projects for the development of slums in the country. On behalf of the Board, “Nirmala Jyothi” project will be implemented in the district and for this, the co-operation of the CMC and the district administration was must, he added.

If the district administration provided the Board with lands, then houses would be constructed to all the slum dwellers. The problem of title deeds was of grave nature and there is a need for a proper analysis and discussion required at the government level, in this regard.

Meanwhile, a rule would be implemented to direct the Urban Development Authority to allot 10 per cent of the layouts for the slum dwellers, he explained.

Presiding over the seminar, K Dorairaju said, for the last 60 years, the slum dwellers have been seeking the help of the governments in solving their problems. They are unable to answer to the problems of the poor. Thus, there was a need for an alternate method to solve their problems.

Comprehensive plan

A comprehensive plan was needed to solve the problems of all the slum dwellers. However, nothing is mentioned in this regard in the budget also. Though the single window system has been implemented to provide facilities like roads, drainage system, houses, title deeds, etc, it is yet to be effective. Even the political parties should show interest in implementing rules and regulations, for the upliftment of the poor, instead of seeking them only when required, Mr Dorairaju added.

Member of the Joint Action Committee of the Karnataka Slum Dwellers, Y J Rajendra said, nothing constructive had been implemented for the welfare of the slum dwellers. 

The life of these slum dwellers was deteriorating day by day. While, land sharks tried to evict them from their respective places. Thus the slum dwellers were a suffering lot, he said and added that everybody has a right to live and enjoy the benefits in the society. And the slum dwellers were not an exception, he said. Kundaranahalli Ramesh and Sayyed Mujeeb also spoke on the occasion. CMC Commissioner Abdul Khayyum, President of the Slum Dwellers Welfare Committee A Narasimhamurthy, Sayyed Altaf and several others took part in the seminar.