[Urbanstudy] Protest Rally in Mumbai against Dishousing Poor in the Name of Urban Renewal

[Aditi thorat]

National Alliance of People's Movements
29-30, 1st floor, 'A' Wing, Haji Habib Bldg, Naigaon
Cross Road,
Dadar (E), Mumbai 400014.
Telefax: (022) 2415052. E-mail: napm at riseup.net.
Website:
www.napmindia.org <http://www.napmindia.org/>
=============================================================

Press Note
October 17, 2005


Urban poor and displaced unorganized workers Challenge
------------------------------------------------------
the ' National Urban Renewal Mission'
------------------------------


· Over 3000 Displaced Slum-Dwellers and exploited
unorganized workers
and activists from cities of 18 states take out Morcha
from Darbi
Talkies, Sandhurdts Rd. to Azad Maidan to protest
against anti poor
Urban Renewal Plan.

· Mumbai city's displaced slum dwellers and
marginalized workers
demand livelihoods and proper housing and live with
basic amenities.

* They Say No to displacenment due to wrong
development policies.


The 'National Urban Renewal Mission of India' (NURM)
claiming to
replace slums with splendor to the satisfaction of all
concerned is
nothing but a tarp for urban poor, be it slum
dwellers, vendors,
hawkers or daily wage workers. This Mission is going
to change the
total fabric of the cities in favour of the private
sectors, builders
and politician and Commercialize even the basic
amenities for the poor
people.

The activists representing various movements and NGO's
working with
marginalized and exploited people from Delhi, Kolkata,
Madras, Madurai,
Nagpur, Pune, Jaipur, Bhopal, Hyderabad,
Vishakhapattnam, Raipur,
Ranchi, Patna, Jamsedpur, Indore, Ahmedabad, Chennai,
and Bijapur
participated in the Morcha to not only lend their full
solidarity to
the people of Mumbai who's homes were bulldozed
several times since
November 2005, but also to challenge the Urban Renewal
Mission.

The large Morcha of over 300 people started at 11.00
a.m. from Darbi
Takies Sandhurts Road Railway Station, and after
walking about six
k.m., reached Azad Maidan by 1.15 p.m.

Addressing the press and the gathering Dr. B.D.
Sharma, the former
commissioner of SC/ST and the president of Bharat Jan
Andolan
challenged the present development Paradigm, and the
'National urban
Renewal Misiion' which is anti poor.

Rajendra Ravi, one of the national conveners o f NAPM
based in Delhi,
termed the plan as 'Urban Removal Plan' which will
displace large
section of marginalized urban workers small shop
owners, vender and
hawkers etc,

Medha Patkar, the National Coordinator of NAPM, termed
this plan as
conspiracy to privatize the basic amenities. She said
this will lead to
more commercialization and privatisation and an
accentuated nexus
between builders, contractors, MNC's, multilateral
agencies, rich and
the government. She stresses this will change the
over all social
cultural and economic characters of the cities against
the large
section of marginalized and exploited population.

Raju Bhise, activist of Sahar Vikas Manch said that
the plan will make
the life of about 60 percent of Mumbai's poor and
working population,
even more difficult and the recent demolitions and the
plight of the
slum dweller are just the tip of the ice berg.

Pravin Ghag, activist of Girani Kamgar Sanghatana,
shared the major
victory of the 'Textile Mill Workers' who won the case
in High
court of getting about 200 acres of textile mill land
to the mill
workers who have build this city. He assured the
people that with
struggle, grit and collective strength we will win our
battle.

The people, survivor of demolition and displacement in
Mumbai and
activists from all over the country have pledge to
continue their
struggle towards the real development which will bring
about a decent
raise in the quality of their life.

Meanwhile, people along with activists of National
Alliance of
people's Movements, Shahar Vikas Manch, ICHRL and
others have pledge
to struggle till their demands are met.

Our demands:
· People should be displaced only with their informed
consent and
participation in the decision-making process. No one
should be
displaced without proper rehabilitation.
· Mumbai's plans pursued in the name of "Mithi River
revival"
or "Mumbai's Development" should proceed in a
transparent manner,
with consent and partnership of the city-dwellers and
those living
along the banks of the river.
· The government has proved to be weak and even late
in providing the
relief to those affected by the deluge of late July.
Many eligible
persons haven't received grain, the sum of Rs. 1000 as
they were
promised. They should be given relief immediately.
· Land Ceiling act should not be repealed but
implemented with more
rigor, and the land acquired should be used to build
houses for the
poor people.
· Government should recover the public lands used by
unauthorized
occupiers on ridiculously low lease rent or where the
land lease is
expired and use it for the poor people housing.

Mukta Srivastava Pervin Jehangir Simpreet Singh




__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com


SPONSORED LINKS
  Root cause analysis<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Root+cause+analysis&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=WYIDOiCBie8uJdsMbiOzPg>
Hair
loss cause<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Hair+loss+cause&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=Nmpmxj8CUwVFgsxpso_2zQ>
Root
cause analysis training<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Root+cause+analysis+training&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=h3nkRiPNTXlNzvqeglDYxg>
 Human
rights<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Human+rights&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=NmdaiFDvWyUAd0py9vlObg>
Human
rights watch<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Human+rights+watch&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=k7HgEUbuuoexR6uLSDGq1A>
Human
rights violations<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Human+rights+violations&w1=Root+cause+analysis&w2=Hair+loss+cause&w3=Root+cause+analysis+training&w4=Human+rights&w5=Human+rights+watch&w6=Human+rights+violations&c=6&s=151&.sig=F8tFp8V6JjWzsEI-0yH1FQ>
 ------------------------------
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS


   - Visit your group "csdmumbai<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/csdmumbai>"
   on the web.
    - To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
   csdmumbai-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com<csdmumbai-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
    - Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
Service<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>
   .


 ------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/urbanstudygroup/attachments/20051018/bb548e02/attachment.html