People's Democracy

MUMBAI

CPI(M) Opposes Bulldozing Of Hutments

P R Krishnan

THE CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury strongly condemned the action of the Congress-led Maharashtra state government of demolishing the hutments in Mumbai and suburbs and throwing thousands of poor inhabitants on to the streets.

Yechury, who was addressing a largely attended convention in central Mumbai on February 23, demanded that the state government must first ensure alternative housing to the hutment dwellers before bulldozing their dwellings. The meeting held at Banamali Hall was organised by Aavas Adhikar Samyukta Samiti. This action committee comprise of different political parties, trade unions and NGOs. The CPI(M) and CITU are constituents of this committee.

With massive help of police, the Brihan Mumbai Mahanagar Palika, under orders from the state government has resorted to an indiscriminate demolition of hutments in Mumbai and suburbs since last two months. There are approximately 12 lakh hutments in and around Mumbai. These slums have come up mostly on state government, central government and Municipal Corporation lands over a long period of time. There are also slums in Railway, Port Trust and other public sector lands. Nearly 65 per cent of the 1.21 crore mega city population are inhabitants of these slums. The 78 lakh strong slum population comprises of people mostly from villages from all parts of India. They have settled down in these slums of Mumbai since several decades. They speak different languages. But a substaintial section of them are Maharashtrians rendered unemployed due to closure of mills and factories. They have sold out their old residences due to joblessness and chose to lie in shanties.

The Nationalist Congress Party and the Indian National Congress Party which came to power in the last assembly election in Maharashtra, held in October 2004, had promised that the people who have settled down in slums till the year 2000 would be allowed to stay in their hutments and will be given photo identity cards. But after coming to power, the INC-NCP coalition forgot this promise and started demolishing the slums. More than 80,000 hutments have been bulldozed during the last two months. This has rendered 4 lakh people shelterless. Quite a number among them are school going children. Already three children have died while living in the open space. A young person died under the bulldozer when he started preventing demolition. Another person died in the fire which engulfed at the time of demolition.

A number of protest demonstrations have taken place demanding halt to these demolition Sitaram Yechury himself wrote a letter on January 1, 2005 to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi demanding restraint on the part of Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. The Congress president forwarded this letter to the chief minister. But the reply of the chief minister to his party president makes it clear that he has no intention of showing restraint. In fact he justified the government action stating that the people are welcoming the demolition drive. This is nothing but untruth.

The Shiv Sena and its leader Bal Thackeray have welcomed the demolition as, according to them, the hutment dwellers are people from outside Maharashtra. To this, Yechury’s reply was that people started coming from rural places due to joblessness and poverty. This is because of capitalist planning. He also referred to the dream plan of the Maharashtra government to remodel Mumbai as Shanghai. “The Vilasrao government should know that it was only after providing alternate housing to the slumdwellers that the communist government in China ventured to shift the hutment dwellers from around Shanghai”, said Yechury. He further pointed out that the Chinese government was constructing every year 10 lakh new houses with modern amenities for the people. He asked the chief minister to follow such a humane approach in this premier state of Maharashtra.

In his speech Yechury also pointed out that the CPI(M) and other Left parties will demand a National Housing Policy and its implementation. He said that in order to prevent influx of people from rural places, the state and central governments should implement appropriate schemes to provide employment to the people. The government in the state and at the centre should also take steps to introduce land reforms. Instead, the UPA government at the centre and the Vilasrao Deshmukh government in the state were encouraging liberalisation. This will create more unemployment, warned Yechury. He asked the state and central governments to implement the common minimum programme. Yechury further said that Bal Thackeray, who says that slum dwellers are outsiders and deserve eviction, should know that a vast majority of the people in Kolkata are non-Bengalis. But they were provided alternative housing before any relocation for improvement in and around the cities of West Bengal. Yechury therefore said that instead of advocating demolition of hutments because the dwellers are outsiders, the Shiv Sena should join the agitation against entry of foreign capital which creates joblessness and miseries to the people.

The meeting was chaired by CPI(M) Mumbai committee secretary Mahendra Singh. Others who spoke in the meeting included CPI(M) central committee member Ahilya Ranganekar, Professor S B Jadhav of Peasants and Workers Party, Madan Naik of Mumbai Rahiwas Sangh, A D Golandaz of AITUC, Sanjay Singhvi CPI(ML) and Jalinder Adsule of Samajwai Party. The Aavas Adhikar Samyukta Samiti as well as several other organisations have been organising several meetings, morchas and dharnas in Mumbai and suburbs in support of the hutment dwellers and against the government’s demoilition drive.