Slum dwellers protest against their shifting to the transit house in Chandrasekharpur on Monday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 10: In an effort to make the city slum free, officials of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) today shifted 36 families from Maa Narayani slum near the old Bachelors’ Barrack in Unit VIII to a transit house facility in Chandrashekharpur.

The transit house is a pre-rehabilitation arrangement.

When the operation began this morning, there was tension in the slum as all the 120 families residing there wanted to move to the transit house. The authorities explained that only biometric identity cards holders were eligible to move there. People from some other slums, including Buddhanagar, Banaphoola, Reddy, Shantinagar, Jharana and Unit VIII Sabara Sahi, also gathered demanding they be moved to transit houses too. The BMC officials said that only 80 residents of the slum had been identified as having biometric cards.

Kusum Nayak (35), a resident of the slum, said: “We cannot accept that only 80 residents are eligible and the others are not. Where we will go with our children in this winter? The high court in its September 15 order had asked the state government to take effective measures to evolve a slum development plan and construct houses for rehabilitating evictees. But the transit house is not the solution as we will be forced to move from there one day.”

Social worker Ranjan Kumar Rout of Jyotirmayee Charitable Trust, who works for the development of slum-dwellers, said: “The people wanted some more time to move as their children’s examinations would be over by March.”

The protesters also alleged that senior BMC officials attempted to shift the residents on January 5 but failed to convince them. The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has constructed 80 houses at Chandrasekharpur. The BDA was supposed to build another 120 at a cost of Rs 2 crore.

Senior BMC officials present at the site during the operation this morning said the drive was a joint effort of the general administration department, BMC, BDA and the commissionerate of police.

“Earlier, some residents of the slum had gone to the transit house near Kanyashram and were happy. Others seemed reluctant to move,” an official said.

BMC slum improvement officer Dillip Kumar Routrai said: “We have already shifted 36 families and hope to shift all those with the biometric cards within 48 hours. The slum dwellers have promised us they will take their belongings with them so that after shifting, the eviction squad can demolish the houses on Thursday. Once people realise that the move is for their good, there will be no resistance.”

The BDA constructed the first transit house complex in the city. A BDA official said: “This is the model transit house for the city, but later more such transit houses will be constructed across the city by different agencies to provide such facilities for slum evictees.... A draft slum policy is already under process and the state government will announce it very soon.”

Sources said that while attending a seminar on “planning for a slum-free city” here recently, the secretary, Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, Kiran Dhingra, had called for building more such transit houses in several other localities in the city. “We should ensure that the livelihood options of the slum dwellers remain intact and the transit homes should ideally be close to the slums,” she had said.