Cuttack, April 15: The demand for permanent land pattas of slum dwellers in Cuttack received fresh impetus with the CPM deciding to organise a rally and gherao the Cuttack collectorate to press for the cause.

“Thousands will proceed towards the collectorate in the rally on April 22 to gherao it,” said Subash Singh, the president of the CPM-backed Cuttack Basti Unayana Mahasangh. “Before this, the CPM would prepare the field for the agitation through meetings in each of the slum pockets,” the president told The Telegraph today. Nearly 220 slums, built over the past 70 years, have been a shelter to over 2 lakh people, who work in the power, telephone and construction sectors or are vendors, rickshawpullers and daily wagers.

“No measure has been initiated by the government over the past 50 years to clean up the slums. Not a single sector of the 14 developed at Mahanadi Vihar and Abhinava Bidanasi Kataka by the Cuttack Development Authority on the north-eastern and south-western fringes have been earmarked for residents,” said Singh, also the president of the CPM’s Cuttack unit.

“The residents are being seen as encroachers when encroachment of land by influential people and builders are being glossed over,” Singh alleged. The organisation has been demanding a solution to the problem by way of rehabilitation with permanent land rights for residents before eviction.