Civic bodies begin identification of beneficiaries of slums

Civic bodies begin identification of beneficiaries of slums
Vijay Times

WITH JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda setting a deadline of October 2 for issuing title deeds to all the slum dwellers in the City , the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) has pulled up its socks to identify the beneficiaries. "The title deeds will help the slum dwellers obtain loans from banks for construction of houses," Gowda had said.

Speaking to BVT , Binnypet MLA V Somanna said that Chief Minister N Dharam Singh had recently held a meeting with the City MLAs to chalk out plans to improve the slums.

"In the recent past, most of the slum dwellers have sold their lands. The intension of issuing possession certificates is to prevent the beneficiaries from selling the land for at least 15 years, he added.

So far , possession certificates have been distributed to around 2,000 beneficiaries identified by the Bangalore City Corporation (BCC) and slum clearance board.

He also said that the BCC, BDA and slum clearance boards had been asked to prepare a list of beneficiaries after surveying around 400 slums in the City , he said.

In a bid to help bona fide slum dwellers by providing them title deeds, the BCC special commissioner Gourav Gupta said that they would issue title deeds to slum dwellers as per the prescribed norms after approval from the government.

The BCC revenue officials will visit the slums located in BCC jurisdiction and identify the people living there. He also said that the officials would visit the slums, photograph it and communicate with the occupants before issuing the title deeds to them.

Asked whether the officials were facing hiccups in identifying the beneficiaries and issuing the title deeds he said, It is a lengthy process as involves a lot of ground work like measuring land and getting approval from the government.

The BCC land may be parted with the slum dwellers in the interest of public. Revenue fee will be collected from the beneficiaries. A decision to this effect would be taken after a high level meeting with the senior officials, he added.