http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=40309

Two lakh deserted to turn Mumbai into Shanghai

Reuters
Posted online: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 1130 hours IST
Updated: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 at 1233 hours IST

Mumbai, January 4: Recent slum demolitions in Mumbai have left tens of thousands of people without a home as the government tries to free up valuable space for development in Mumbai.

Local officials said that more than 45,000 shanties had been demolished in just over three weeks as police and state workers used earthmovers and bulldozers to clear 200 acres (81 hectares) of illegally occupied government land.

The demolition comes as the state is rolling out an ambitious 260-billion-rupee ($6-billion) infrastructure plan to "turn Mumbai into Shanghai", with better roads and public transport and more green spaces.

Among the more than 200,000 people displaced, many are angry with the government for reneging on an election promise and excluding them from its grand plan for the city.

"This is an inhuman way to deal with the poorest of the poor," said Jockin Arputham, president of the National Slum Dwellers' Federation. "The government had falsely assured them and has not provided an alternative. Where will these people go?"

Distraught families have put up tents near where their flimsy tin and tarpaulin dwellings have been smashed, while others have started building again on the same spot with material salvaged from the wreckage. Others have simply moved to another slum.

More than half the city's 17 million people live in slums or on pavements below gleaming high-rises. Apartments are largely unaffordable for the many poor rural migrants seeking work in the wealthy commercial centre of Mumbai, as Mumbai is now known.

The Maharashtra state government said last month all slums built since 1995 would have to go.

The previous government, led by Shiv Sena party, had legalised slums up to 1995, and Congress party candidates had, prior to winning the May election, promised to do the same for slums built up to 2000 in a bid to secure votes.

WE DON'T NEED A SHANGHAI

Of the estimated half a million shanties in the city, nearly 80 per cent are on municipal and government-owned land and pose a challenge to development plans.

"They have to leave Mumbai as they are staying on government land illegally," said Prakash Patil, the assistant municipal commissioner, admitting that demolition is expensive and not always effective, as shanties often reappear just as fast.

In the northern suburb of Chembur alone Patil has overseen the demolition of more than 13,000 shanties and estimates there are as many left that are illegal, or built after 1995.

Mumbai's slums, which cover about a tenth of the city and usually sprout near construction sites and new flyovers and roads, are generally devoid of even basic civic amenities. But residents sometimes club together to pay for electricity and cable, and even run small businesses.

"Such a big portion of Mumbai's population is squeezed into 10 per cent of its land area, and these are people that contribute to the city's economy by providing cheap labour," said Sharit Bhowmik, a sociology professor at University of Mumbai.

"We give them nothing, and blame them for all the ills."

The city cracked down on more than a quarter of a million street vendors last year, in a bid to ease congestion, but it has largely failed to keep them from returning to hawk clothes, plastic items and a variety of food from push carts and tables. Activists who oppose the latest demolitions say residents were given no warning and no relocation option. Now, the land will be used for housing that is out of reach of those displaced.

"We need to upgrade our slums, not demolish them, and develop the rest of the state, so we can stem the flow of migrants," said Bhowmik, who helped draft a national policy on urban development.

"We don't need a Shanghai, just a liveable city for all."