Medha Patkar to take up cudgels for slum dwellers

Bangalore, Feb 24 (UNI) Narmada Bachao Andolan leader and social activist Medha Patkar will launch a nationwide agitation from March 19, demanding regularisation of land for slum dwellers living in urban areas.

Addressing a largely attended protest meeting of slum dwellers here today, she said the stir would be launched in New Delhi to protect the rights of those living in villages and slums in cities and towns. In the name of development, the Union and State Governments were adopting anti-people policies and uprooting poor people from their dwelling places, she alleged.

Claiming that multinational companies and large domestic firms have acquired large tracts of prime urban land after the Urban Ceiling Act was liberalised, Ms Patkar said they were now targetting poor people living in slums in various cities and towns. Political parties, which posed as protectors of slum dwellers during election time, transformed into their "tormentors" once they assumed power.

The land mafia across the country unleashed money and muscle power to force Governments to change laws in their favour, ignoring the plight of lakhs and lakhs of poor people, she added.

Describing Special Economic Zones (SEZ) as ''Special Exploitation Zones'' detrimental to the working claimed, she said both the Union and State Governments were losing heavy revenue due to SEZ. The MNCs and large domestic companies which intend to establish units at SEZs were also demanding separate labour laws and civil laws.

Ms Patkar appealed to the labourers working in the unorganised sector to come together and fight exploitation and denial of fundamental rights due to them.

On the contentious Cauvery issue, she opined that no Tribunal could solve the problem as long as political parties of both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu made it an issue to gain political mileage. ''The people living in the Cauvery delta region in both the States should resolve the issue themselves,'' she said.

The Karnataka Kolageri Nivasigala Hitarakshana Janti Kriya Samithi organised the meeting, in which a large number of women living in slums in various parts of the State participated.

UNI