Migration due to unemployment and poverty the main cause for slums
Picture for representational purpose
Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s dream of a slum-free capital city looks like a distant dream. Migration as a result of unemployment and poverty has been touted as one of the main reasons for the increase of slums across different cities, which hampers the developing cities as per international standards, say experts. As recorded between 2001-2011, the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had reported a slum population of over 101 lakh, the second highest state in the country after Maharashtra, which had about 118 lakh people living in slums.
As on December 2013, the Greater Hyderabad limits had reported a total of 18 lakh slum dwellers with 4 lakh households across 1440 slums. Vijayawada has a total of 200 slums of which 139 are officially notified with a total of 3.5 lakh population. Of them, about 2 lakh live in notified slums.Professor Haragopal, a socialist, said that once such announcements (of slum free cities) are made and policies are announced, there must be commitment to ensure they are followed and completed. “Use of technology today has become so advanced that construction of houses is not time consuming.
But what is required is to figure out how these must be spaced. Slum-free cities are every country’s dream and it depends on the respective government on how much resources they put in for this,” he added. “Telangana and the Andhra government now has surplus budget and if they are committed, we can achieve this in the next five years.”
“Unless and until we fight the social evil and invest in education right from the grass root level, things are never going to improve. Rather than making the capital as the centre for all industries, why not take the American model and create different sectors across different districts. Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Anantapur, Nellore and Vijayawada have a lot of scope. If they are developed, one can prevent migration,” said a GHMC official.
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