People's Democracy

Thousands of Slumdwellers March To Maharashtra Assembly

 THOUSANDS of slumdwellers belonging to Nagpur and its sorrounding areas marched to Maharashtra state assembly, which was in session in Nagpur on December 17. This march was held under the banner of Lokmorcha Jhopadpatti Bachao Samyukta Sangharsha Samiti (Save The Slumdwellers United Struggle Committee), formed at the initiative of the CPI(M). This committee consisted of 12 political parties and several slum dweller’s organisations and it began its campaign from June 10th of this year.

The movement started when the local administration started demolishing slums as per an order of the Nagpur High Court. Immediately, several agitations were organised by the non-Congress and non-BJP parties against this demolition spree. The state government was then compelled to file  a special leave petition in the Supreme Court against the High Court order. However, it was not sincere in protecting the slumdwellers and was bent on using the High Court's order to evict them. It passed various administrative orders to achieve this. It decided to demolish 9 slums citing the necessity of constructing public utility structures in their place. It also put another 22 slums on the chopping block with a fait accompli to the residents to buy an alternative land by depositing Rs 25,000 for a 150 square feet land.

On December 17, thousands of slumdwellers responded to the call of Lokmorcha to participate in this march, which attracted the attention of the people of Nagpur. Addressing the meeting, Arun Latkar, CPI(M) district secretariat member criticised the state government for its anti-people policies. He also lambasted the BJP-Shiv Sena combine for keeping mum on this issue. He reminded the slumdwellers that it was this same combine's government which promised to provide 40 lakh houses in the state for the poor - a promise which has not been fulfilled as yet. He said the Congress, BJP, Shivsena  all represented the interests of burgeoisie-landlord sections.

The leaders of CPI , Forward Block, JD(S), Samajwadi Party, the four Republican Party of India groups, RPI-Bahujan Mahasangh (led by Prakash Ambedkar) and SUCI also spoke on this occassion.

The decision to undertake this march to assembly was taken at a convention organised on  November 19 at Nagpur. Slumdwellers from not only Nagpur district but also from nearby Gondia, Bhandara districts participated in it. This was a significant development.

Meanwhile on December 3, the Supreme Court had reversed the order of Nagpur High Court, in effect stopping the demolition of slums. Both the Congress and BJP welcomed this decision, while Shiv Sena demanded quick issue of photo identity cards for the slum dwellers.  The Lokmorcha committee had on the other hand opposed the retrograde conditions of Photo IDs and demanded the withdrawal of all government orders which were intended to evict the poor slumdwellers. With these demands, despite  the Supreme Court’s decision the committee decided to go ahead with its  march to Assembly  programme.

After this March the signal is very clear slumdwellers movement will continue till they will be provided  ownership  of their slums. This march exposed the parties which are against the poor.  The effort of the Lokmorcha committee would be to show to the slumdwellers that their problems are a result of the anti-people LPG policies of both the central and state governments and that these can only be fought back by strong people’s movements.