How slum rehabilitation has become a major issue in the run-up to Delhi elections

The value of the slum vote

About 80 per cent of Delhi’s slum residents voted for the AAP successful the past 2 elections successful 2015 and 2020. The party’s payment schemes specified arsenic escaped electricity, escaped h2o up to 20,000 litres per household, mohalla clinics and escaped proscription for women person been well-received. The AAP plans to physique connected this elector base, with enactment main Arvind Kejriwal calling himself the “protector of slums and slum residents” past week. To this end, they person embarked connected door-to-door campaigns and nationalist meetings. The enactment has alleged that the BJP if elected would cancel the existent schemes and demolish their houses wrong a year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi past week inaugurated Swabhiman Apartments – the in-situ slum rehabilitation task successful Ashok Vihar successful West Delhi, culminating a six-month-long outreach effort which has seen BJP leaders walk clip and enactment overnight successful slum clusters.

How are Delhi’s slums rehabilitated?

There are astir 46 land-owning agencies connected whose onshore slums and JJ clusters are encroaching.

The task of slum rehabilitation successful Delhi falls connected 2 agencies: the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), a cardinal authorities body, and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) astatine the authorities level.

Central authorities agencies similar Railways, Land & Development Office, Delhi Cantonment Board and New Delhi Municipal Council whitethorn transportation retired the relocation and rehabilitation process connected their ain oregon entrust the occupation to DUSIB. DDA is authorised to conception houses and oversee the relocation and rehabilitation of slum clusters connected cardinal authorities land.

DUSIB, connected the different hand, is the nodal bureau for the relocation and rehabilitation of JJ clusters from the lands belonging to the Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD) and the Delhi authorities and its departments/agencies. It surveys slums and verifies the eligibility of slum inhabitants to assistance with their rehabilitation. It enables the operation of houses done different authorities agencies similar Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC).

Why is the slum rehabilitation process difficult?

An authoritative who spoke to The Indian Express said that the process of rehabilitating slum inhabitants has changed since the archetypal resettlement colonies and slums were built successful 1960. As the colonisation expanded, the size of the onshore holding allotted to slum dwellers shrank.

“Initially a crippled of 80 quadrate yards would beryllium allotted to a family, and aboriginal the size would trim to 40, 18 and past 12.5 quadrate yards… Under this policy, the authorities utilized to trim the crippled size, allotting them to slum dwellers wherever they built their houses. The authorities authorities would past supply basal facilities and services specified arsenic h2o connection, drainage transportation and roads. With shrinking onshore availability, it revised this argumentation from allotting land-holdings to allotting flats successful 2010,” said an official who spoke to The Indian Express.

In 2015, the authorities authorities introduced “Jahan Jhuggi Wahan Makan”, an successful situ rehabilitation argumentation which promised to conception houses for slum dwellers wrong a five-kilometre radius of their existent dwelling. Later that year, the Delhi authorities introduced a strategy for the successful situ rehabilitation of JJ bastis connected lands belonging to different land-owning agencies. The DDA-built Kathputli slum colony was rehabilitated nether this policy.

The Delhi Master Plan 2021 envisages that for successful situ rehabilitation of JJ bastis, a maximum of 40% of onshore tin beryllium utilized arsenic a assets and a minimum of 60% of onshore has to beryllium utilized for in-situ redevelopment to rehabilitate JJ dwellers.

Under the in-situ rehabilitation of jhuggi bastis, DUSIB undertakes surveys and verification processes of slum and submits a study to the land-owning agency, which compensates DUSIB for relocating the jhuggi households. The outgo of rehabilitation includes the costs of operation of dwelling units and onshore if further onshore belonging to DUSIB is utilized for rehabilitation.