Slum dwellers protest against lack of amenities

Rourkela: Dejected over lack of basic amenities, slum dwellers from different wards raised their voices against the Rourkela Municipality.

United under the banner of ‘Basti Suraksha Mancha’, hundreds of families from Sector-2, Khariabahal, Railway Colony, Malgodown, Madhusudanpali, Gopabandhupali, Timber Colony, Bandhamunda and Pradhanpali slums, demonstrated today in front of the Rourkela Municipality Office here remonstrating against irregularities in providing basic amenities.

Shouting slogans against the Councillors and officers of the Municipality, the slum dwellers alleged that though despite their several reminders, the Government and Municipality has not taken any action till now. They also alleged that best example of corruption is the distribution of PLO cards. The PLO cards were distributed to the rich, thereby ignoring the actual beneficiaries, they added.

Pratibha Panigrahi, a family member said, “We are facing several problems in the slums like non-availability of PLO cards, no land to those displaced under Rajiv Awas Yojna, no latrine facilities, no drainage and non availability of driving water”. She also alleged that at the time of elections, the candidates assure of many developmental activities for the slum dwellers, but after winning, they simply forget them.

The slum dwellers demanded a fresh survey to look into corruption during distribution of PLO cards and demanded stringent action against the offenders. They also demanded to provide 35,000 additional PLO card up and above the 9000 distributed earlier.

Further they demanded to speed up the Rajiv Awas Yojna land allotment scheme for the displaced.