Urban News

While in Bhagwanpur village, the compensation awarded is Rs 91 lakh an acre, in Bhogpur this is around Rs 33 lakh and in Meerapur Bakshiwala it is Rs 26.5 lakh an acre. Aruna Sachdeva, who owns 7 acres in Bhogpur, says, “The compensation is meagre. With the money HUDA is offering, we would not be able to buy a decent house. The compensation is not acceptable to us. Within a radius of a few hundred metres, the compensation being awarded differs widely.”

Sachdeva had been teaching in different countries before she decided to settle in India. She used all her savings to buy the 7-acre land that is now being acquired. “I had earlier given a representation to HUDA and even written to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), requesting the authorities to leave 2 acres of my land as I wanted to start a centre for empowerment of women. However, this has not been heeded to,” she says.

While on the one hand the residents are ruing the disparities in compensation, they are also not satisfied with the criteria adopted for awarding compensation. Rajeev Syal, a resident of Bhogpur who owns land in Islam Nagar, says two to three groups of villagers would move court in the coming week. “Three different awards cannot be there in the same notification, as has been done. Our fight for enhanced compensation will continue till justice is done. HUDA is acting like a broker. While we have been paid a pittance, the property rates are extremely high. Once we go to buy property, we have to dig deeper in our pockets,” says Syal. Land Acquisition Officer D S Kairon denied the allegations, arguing that they followed the acquisition policy of the government. “We are prepared in case the villagers decide to move court. The acquisition has been done as per the norms,” he claimed.

By 2017, the total slum population in Orissa has been projected at 19.4 lakh. The slum population will increase at the rate of 30,000 per annum in Orissa, according to the new estimate of the recently released Pranob Sen report.

Increased urbanisation leads to proliferation of slums. By that yardstick, the urbanisation in Orissa is not going to be faster than that of Chhattisgarh. But the State’s slum population has a higher share of urban population vis-a-vis other states.

As per 2001 census, the slum population accounts for 25 per cent of the total urban population in the State. But the figures in Delhi and Gujarat are only 18 and 19 per cent. Even in Uttar Pradesh, the ratio is less than that of Orissa. The higher share shows higher slum population growth compared to urbanisation rate. This has led to the crumbling of labour market in rural areas. Growth in urban areas is mainly due to influx of rural migrants and in-situ growth. Census figures show in-situ growth is not abnormal here.

In rural areas, the labour market is dominated by agri-labourers. The shedding of labour by agriculture and lack of non-farm options make them migrate to urban areas.

As per the Pranob Sen report, total slum population was 14 lakh in 2001 census. But the slum census in 2001 was conducted in towns having 50,000 plus population. After the launch of Rajiv Awas Yojana, the Sen Committee has been set up to identify total slums in the states irrespective of population size.

The Registrar General of India, after technical simulations, has made an estimate of the slum population in towns having population between 20,000-50,000. The estimates for the second group of towns (20,000-50,000) shows slum population at 40,000-50,000 only. The 13.6 lakh slum population lives in towns with 50,000 plus population.

Of this, five major cities of Orissa - Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Puri, Sambalpur - together account for 8 lakh. The figures make it clear that most migrations are taking place to these cities.