INDIAN EXPRESS MAY 2 , 2003

SLUM RESIDENTS EXHIBIT MODEL HOUSE
Pune: Residents of Kamgar Putla slum celebrated the end of their long struggle for rehabilitation on Wednesday, with an exhibition of a model house at Hadapsar relocation site. The exhibition was inaugurated by the corporator Rajlaxmi Bhosale.

The slum-dwellers, whose houses along the Mutha river were washed away in the 1997 floods, have been saving money for new houses under the guidance of NGO Shelter Associates(SA). About 160 families in the slum have saved Rs 4 lakh so far, which will be used as down payment for bank loans.

SA director Pratima Joshi told TNN that each of the 25 two-storey blocks will house eight families in separate quarters with individual toilets and cooking facilities. The area of each tenement will be 21.35 sq mt and the ceiling height has been increased to include an additional loft of about 7.5 sq mt.

"In the first phase, around 200 families will be rehabilitated at the Hadapsar site, which have been reserved for housing th economically weaker sections of society."Joshi said. The scheme will be implemented under the Valmiki ambedkar Yojana (Vambay) with help from the Pune municipal corporation (PMC) and Maharashtra Housing Area Development Authority.

Elaborating, Joshi said each tenement will cost Rs. 85,000, out of which Rs.50,000 will be given as subsidy under Vambay by the Union and state governments. The remaining Rs 35,000 will be raised through a loan from the United Western Bank.

It may be noted that the Kamgar Putla residents had to cross several obstacles during the last six years to fulfil their demand of rehabilitation. a media and governance project, To be funded by Canada- based Institute on Governance, which in turn, received funding from the Canadian International Development Agency and Ford Foundation, was taken up for the purpose in 2001. The project abandoned halfway through as the PMC lost intrest in it.

It was revived by municipal commissioner Sanjay Kumar, local corporator Bhosale and the residents.