PCMC: Ruling NCP says Pimpri turning into ‘city of slums’

The civic administration,however,denied the charge while expressing its commitment to stopping growth of any new slums.

Behl’s angry riposte was followed by a storm of protest over his remarks at the civic general body meeting on Thursday,in which he accused the civic administration of treating slums-dwellers of being “the sons-in-law of the civic body”.

“PCMC is giving them everything free of cost — from light,water,roads to houses. This behaviour is nothing short of making them its sons-in-law,” Behl had said.

Despite protests,Behl made it clear on Sunday that he stands by his remarks made at the civic general body meeting. “What I said applied to growth of the new slums. As for those set up before 2000,the civic body has to rehabilitate them as per government policy.

“But how is it allowing new hutments to come up even on footpaths?” he asked.

The NCP chief said that in the past one and half years,3,000 to 4,000 hutments have come up in different parts of the town. But the administration has failed to remove them while “streamrolling over taxpayers’ houses”.

His comments have drawn much flak from political parties such as the BJP and the RPI. Even activists have taken strong objection to his remarks.

Manav Kamble,president of the Nagari Haqq Suraksha Samiti,criticised the “insensitive” remarks and demanded an apology from him. “Slums are still on rise due to government’s failure to tackle drought in villages. Besides,slum-dwellers are being rehabilitated in flats from money given by the state and Central governments.

“It should also be borne in mind that those who think they are rulers are actually servants of the people. NCP has no right to denigrate slum population,” he said.

BJP unit president Eknath Pawar said,“The NCP came to power in PCMC twice by promising free houses to slum-dwellers. Now it is making derogatory remarks against the same slum-dwellers who brought it power. Power seems to have gone to their head. NCP should ask Behl to quit.”

RPI corporator Chandrakant Sonkamble and slum-dwellers protested against Behl in Dapodi and sought his ouster.

Civic officials attributed Behl’s remarks to frustration over the Mahatma Phulenagar slums being evicted. “MIDC was supposed to flatten the Phulengar slums,but backtracked at the last minute. This has angered Behl,who is now taking it out against the civic administration,” officials said.

When contacted,the PCMC chief said the civic body was committed to removing new slums and rehabilitating the old slum-dwellers. “Some hutments might have come up,but they would soon be removed. But it would be wrong to say that the number of slums are rapidly growing in the town. We have taken action against several illegal hutments and even helped MHADA in removing slums,” he said.