Three-Pronged Strategy In Place To Make Bhubaneswar Slum-Free City, Says New Mayor

Bhubaneswar: In order to make Bhubaneswar a slum-free city, the BMC will restrict the slums to a fixed number and declare the new ones as unauthorised construction, said newly elected Bhubaneswar mayor Sulochana Das.

Speaking to Odisha Bytes, Das said chief minister Naveen Patnaik aims at converting Bhubaneswar into a world-class city and no 1 Smart City in the country. The state government and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been consistently working in this regard.

Admitting that new slums have been cropping up in the Capital City over the years, she said it is caused by the expanding nature of the city which is attracting people from all over the country and different sectors. “There has to be a mechanism to check the proliferation of slums. For this, surveys are conducted from time to time and measures for development and rehabilitation of slum-dwellers are taken,” she added.

On the measures to be taken for the development of the slums, the mayor said the BMC will adopt a three-pronged strategy. Firstly, the slums will be provided with all facilities like black-topped roads, street lights, power connection and water supply to each household, community centre, public toilets and others that are available in colonies, apartments and satellite townships.

“These measures have been implemented in some alums already. If you go to the backside of Uktal Hospital, you cannot know that there was a slum there. The entire area will make you feel that you are not even in Bhubaneswar,” she said.

The second measure is to rehabilitate the slum-dwellers in affordable houses as has already been done for the residents of slums in Mahisakhala, Chandrasekharpur and Niladri Vihar. Each of them has been provided with a flat in apartments by displacing them from their slums, the Mayor said.

As a final step, the BMC will determine a particular year for limiting the slums to a fixed number. According to the official figures, there are 458 slums in the city at present. New slums have been coming up every year but it needs to be stopped, she said.

“For this purpose, the new slums that will come up after the cut-off year will be declared as unauthorised construction and will be demolished. Already survey has been completed in 2013 and 2017 for this purpose and it will be followed up with necessary steps,” Das said.

Speaking on the problems faced by the slum-dwellers, she said she has already drawn up a list of immediate steps to be taken to mitigate those. For example, streamlining the draining problem is at the top of the agenda. Besides, a centralised slaughterhouse will be set up and a wholesale fish market will come up at Rasulgarh.

In order to understand the problems of the people, a complaint box will be installed in each slum and remedial steps taken promptly, the Mayor said.

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