U’khand not to allow demolition of slums

The ruling Congress in Uttarakhand on Monday said it will not allow demolition of a single slum in the state in the name of anti-encroachment and fulfil its prepoll promise of regularising the slum colonies and giving ownership rights to their residents.

Describing interests of the poor and the deprived sections as ‘vertebral’ to the party, Pradesh Congress president Kishore Upadhyay said these sections have inspired a number of schemes launched by the successive governments headed by the party, be it the food security scheme, the right to education or MNREGA.

Addressing a meeting of the labour cell of the party here, Upadhyay said the party will foil any move by the municipal corporations to remove a single slum anywhere in the state and also fulfil its promise made before the 2012 assembly polls to regularise the slum areas and give ownership rights to slum dwellers. Earlier addressing, the meeting senior party leader Suryakant Dhasmana accused the municipal corporations of demolishing slums in the name of anti-encroachment despite a decision of the state cabinet to regularise slum colonies and give ownership rights to their residents.

‘A similar attempt was made by the municipal corporation in 1996 to remove the slums in the name of anti-encroachment but I spearheaded a party campaign at the time to have the move stalled’, he said.