Kolkata Slums

Kolkata slum story

The plight of slum dwellers in Kolkata and other cities in India is well known. Among numerous problems this one can be solved easily. Most slums are in prime areas and occupy huge amount of land because almost all slum-houses are single-storied. If the government is serious about slum-dwellers it will do the following: 1. Auction whole slum area to real estate developers transparently so that supporters of ruling parties alone do not win the auction. The highest bidder should win. 2. A condition of auction will be that one multi-storied building will be constructed first, so that each slum family gets one flat( with rudimentary amenities ,cement, not tile floor, two rooms, one bath ). There will be two flat sizes, may be 400 and 600 sq ft and will be given according to size of family. While each family gets the flat free, they will be evicted unless they pay a nominal monthly maintenance fee. They will not be allowed to sell the flat for first 5 years. 3. After all the slum dwellers get possession of flats, the developer will be free to construct multi-storied apartment complex in the rest of the land area. 4. A law should be passed making slums illegal within Kolkata. There is precedence to this. A law is now in force, which made cowsheds (khatals) illegal in Kolkata several years ago. Now there is no khatal inside Kolkata. 5. If the slum owner is not KMC, then the slumlord should be given 10% of the money generated by auction. This is a win-win situation. The slum dwellers get a decent flat with 24-hour water and electricity. Overnight, they become owner of a property which may be worth lakhs of Rupees. KMC gets most of the money raised in auction. The developer gets prime land where they can develop housing projects. Kolkata becomes slum free. The only losers may be people in the neighborhood who were getting cheap labor as domestic help and drivers from the slums. I would not mind that. On a related note, the stupid land-ceiling act is making life miserable across India for middle and lower-middle class families. Because of this law, developers cannot have economy of scale where they would be able to build 50000 flats in a particular development thus reducing price per flat and making it affordable for ordinary folks.