[Reader-list] Fw: Basti Land

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: Deva 
To: Aditi ; Ashish Acharjee 2 ; Ashish Basu ; Jai ; Jayantada ; Pom 
Cc: Probir Ghosh ; Rakshit ; Ranajit ; Ranjit ; Sobhanlal Bonnerjee ; Vasudha Joshi 
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 6:57 PM
Subject: Basti Land


V Ramaswamy

Sitara, B 299 Lake Gardens

Kolkata 700 045

 

 

23 February 2005-02-23

 

 

The Editor

The Telegraph

Kolkata

Email: ttedit at abpmail.com

 

Dear Sir,

 

Sub: Letter to the Editor

 

I am grateful to The Telegraph for the report "Slums lock 10,000 acres of prime land" (23 February 2005).

 

Basti land and basti conditions - are the key developmental issue for metropolitan Kolkata. The immense social and human development deficit suffered by the city's poor, the overwhelming majority of whom live in bastis, can only be met by the socialisation of basti land. 

 

However, the fundamental prerequisite is the effective participation of dwellers and their neighbourhood organisations in any programme of redevelopment. They cannot be incidental to such programmes, undertaken cynically to deprive the poor of their right to shelter to reap real estate profits. Dwellers must be the key focus. And like the slogan 'land to the tiller' in rural land reform, urban land reform must achieve 'house to the dweller'. 

 

All basti dwellers would thus get legal title to substantially more and better quality dwelling space than they currently have (typically 100 sq ft or less), with all civic amenities. Basti redevelopment would also be the means to secure the shelter rights of the lakhs of squatters (like those near the Lake Gardens rail track, who face imminent displacement, without any hope of meaningful resettlement). Adequate residential and commercial built-up area would still be generated, to make the scheme viable. A study by Unnayan for the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights had detailed the feasibility of such a basti renewal effort, but also pointed to the need to build up the entire regulatory and institutional framework necessary.

 

Bastis are also the site of a huge amount of manufacturing and trades. Garments, footwear, paper products - are some of the items in the city economy whose production is largely basti-based. But all such trades are also blighted, and their owners and workers are in an extremely vulnerable state. Structural upgradation of basti-based manufacturing, through skill and technology development, credit finance and marketing facilities would secure hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. Basti redevelopment has therefore to creatively integrate the housing and livelihood aspects.

 

Basti redevelopment would radically transform the social and physical landscape of the city. However, the prognosis for such a programme is bleak. Currently bastis are the sites of large-scale, flagrant illegal construction, undertaken by a nexus of political party activists, criminals and police. This severely vitiates living conditions in bastis, with serious negative environmental health impact. Infant mortality and morbidity - must be seen in this light. Muslim bastis in Kolkata and Howrah are among the worst areas. 

 

Sheer disaster - social, environmental - looms large over Kolkata. Will its citizens stand up and act before it is too late?

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

V Ramaswamy

Hony. Chairman, Howrah Pilot Project

Hony. Secretary, Metropolitan Assembly for Social Development

E-mail: hpp at vsnl.com 





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The Telegraph, Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Slums lock 10,000 acres of prime land

DEEPANKAR GANGULY

At a time the development boom in the city is taking a fast toll on its land, around 10,000 acres of slum land in prime pockets are lying locked because of their peculiar legal status.

Following the enactment of the Thika Tenancy Act, 1981, neither the state government nor the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has been able to take any meaningful step to develop the slum areas. 

Reason: the Act does not bestow the title of right to the precious acres on any individual or organisation.

A survey reveals that the shantytowns - comprising 10,000 bighas of thika land - are spread over Judges' Court Road, Gariahat Road, Alipore Road, Bhowanipore, Sealdah, Ashutosh Mukherjee Road, Kalighat, New Alipore and Kidderpore. 

Officials of the government and the civic body have put their heads together to discuss how to free the plots and build housing estates for the middle and upper-middle classes on them. 

The proceeds from developing the land would be used for arranging alternative accommodation for the over five lakh families occupying the prime plots.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee has proposed that the government acquire the thika land against a token compensation, just as it had acquired the Calcutta Tramways Company and Westinghouse Saxby Farmer more than 25 years ago. 

"There are two options - the state government acquire the plots either for itself or for the Corporation," Mukherjee told Metro.

According to the civic body's deputy chief law officer Shaktibrata Ghosh, the Thika Tenancy Act has vested in the controller of thika tenancy all leasehold land and kutcha structures, with a lease period beyond December 1981.

The state government became the "superior landlord" for all slums. Most slum-dwellers are tenants and they deposit their rent with the controller of thika tenancy.

"It is a peculiar situation. The state government is the superior landlord without holding title rights," pointed out Ghosh.

According to the CMC Act, construction on a plot of land can be sanctioned only in the favour of the title-holder. 

Hence, until the state government or the CMC acquires the slum land, it will be difficult to sanction any proposed construction on it.

Taking advantage of the impasse, a section of promoters is minting money by constructing illegal highrises on the shanty plots. The structures, according to experts, are nothing but four or five-storeyed slums. 

"The slums are unfit for habitation. They are too overcrowded, the roads are too narrow and ventilation and sanitation facilities are almost non-existent," said mayoral council member (slum development) Javed Ahmed Khan.

He pointed out that the national average of the urban slum population has grown by 21.3 per cent, against the total population, between 1981 and 1991. In Calcutta, the growth has been a staggering 31.8 per cent.

Reacting to the joint move for the development of the slum land, Calcutta Bustee Federation joint secretary Mohammad Nizamuddin said: "We have no objection if development is carried out without evicting the slum-dwellers."

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