UPA government is at right track to have ambitious dream of having Indian urban areas slum free.It is a right step in right direction but taken very late. Better quality of life can not be compromised at the cost of nasty politics.

Can we envisage any indian urban area without organic housing developments specifically slums & squatters? The present mega cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kanpur dotted with slums in the mid sixties due to so called industrialisation in India. Large numbers of people from rural areas started moving towards urban centres in the search of job opportunities and started staying also occupying public and private space. Most of the slums mushroomed at the heart of the cities. As per present data around 15% of the urban India is in slums and around 80% slums are on government lands in the form of open land left for parks, road sides etc.The number of slums was highest in Maharashtra (32 per cent) followed by West Bengal (16 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (15 per cent)The figures of percentage staying in slums is alarming in Mumbai around 56%, and in Faridabad, Meerut,Aligarh and Kanpur around 45 to 50%. Even Kanpur was officially declared as slum city long back in 1952 due to rapid industrialisation. The existing infrastructure in slums is in very deteriorating stage inspite of better paying capacity by the slum dwellers.

Ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (MHUPA) has started a massive though process supported by schemes to get rid of slums by giving property right to the dwellers while redeveloping the land into valuable real estate that would add to the nations economic growth. The government plans to build 50 lakh dwelling units in five years across 400 towns and cities, in its most ambitious plan ever to house 6 crore slum dwellers and realise the vision of a slum-free India. If this programme is properly implemented government could get valuable free land thousand of acres across the country at the heart of the cities and PPP model could also be implemented with the private real estate developers.The ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation has sought an allocation of Rs 2,25,000 croreover onefifth of the total budget expenditure for the current fiscalfor the entire scheme, said a senior ministry official involved with the preparation of the proposal that has been sent to the Planning Commission. The programme, named Rajiv Awas Yojana, draws from the experience of the government in housing the urban poor under the ongoing Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission , and is touted as the first sincere attempt to rid India of slums.

This is good step and thought of giving proper staying in smaller flats to the dweller rather than staying at precious land causing enigma to city also. The conversion of existing slums land owership to dweller will also encourage them to strengthen the housing. The efforts made by central governments should also be supported by state governments and local agencies to make India cities practically slum free.