Slum-Free Bhopal: Herculean Task Ahead To Settle 7 Lakh Families

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Though Chief Minister Mohan Yadav's announcement to make Bhopal slum-free is music to the ears, there are challenges aplenty as decades of efforts in this direction have not yielded the desired results. The chief minister has emphasized constructing buildings for slum dwellers before making them vacate their existing houses. There are around 7 lakh families residing in nearly 338 slums scattered across various parts of the city.

Vallabh Bhavan, Bhim Nagar, Anna Nagar, and Banganga are among the major slums in the state capital. For decades, politicians have been advocating for the settlement of slum dwellers Currently, under the Housing for All (HAF) scheme, houses are being allocated to the slum dwellers in the city.

The scheme is being implemented by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). Between 2005 and 2014, over 12,000 houses were provided to slum dwellers under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) scheme, while 5,000 accommodations have been allotted under HAF since 2015, according to BMC officials. Slum dwellers from Pampapur-Rahul Nagar (MANI), Madrasi Colony, Vajpayee Nagar, and Suraj Nagar were provided houses under BSUP. Despite these schemes being in place, little has changed as new slums continue to spring up in various corners of the city.

The slum culture continues to thrive, with many slum dwellers showing little interest in moving into the accommodations allocated to them. In many cases, slum dwellers have been found to rent out the houses they were allotted under the scheme and move to other areas, defeating the purpose of the schemes. Corporators are of the opinion that the administration should conduct a survey and allocate houses to slum dwellers within a stipulated time frame. After the deadline, no new slums should be considered.  

Tenure security policy 

In the 1980s, the then Chief Minister Arjun Singh launched a policy of tenure security for slum dwellers. The Congress-led government at the time allotted tenure of land (patta) on an ‘as is, where is’ basis to the slum dwellers, allowing them to keep the land they had been occupying. For the last 30 years, slum dwellers have enjoyed tenure security, occupying land measuring between 300 and 700 square feet, or more.  

Around 7755 houses being constructed under HAF

HAF projects are being carried on at various places like Kokta, Bhauri, Hinautia Alam-II, Bhanpur, Malikhedi,  Bagmugalia, Shyam Nagar, Ahedi, Rahul Nagar,Rashalkhedi, Kalkheda, ganga Nagar, Aradhna Nagar, Kalkheda-II, Mahawadia. Around 7,755 houses are being constructed under the HAF for slum dwellers. Out of these, around 3500 houses are almost complete, according to the BMC report.