Riverfront evacuees in Ahmedabad lament poor home infra

Those affected by the Sabarmati riverfront project lamented poor infrastructure of the housing colony built for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) in Saraspur area of the city.

Around 100 slum-dwellers who were shifted from the riverfront to these houses submitted a memorandum in this regard to municipal commissioner Guruprasad Mohapatra on Wednesday stating that they had not received the promised infrastructure facilities.

The state government had assured good quality pucca houses to slum-dwellers living on the riverfront. They had been evacuated for developing the ambitious riverfront project in the city. In lieu of their shanties, the slum-dwellers were promised a housing colony with proper urban infrastructure facilities such as street lights, internal roads, school, drainage and water supply facilities, common plot, parking facility, garden and health care centre.

In addition, the state government claimed that the slum-dwellers would be getting residential units worth Rs10 lakh for just Rs66,900.

However, slum-dwellers, who have been rehabilitated at the EWS housing colony in Saraspur, feel cheated. “Instead of proper urban infrastructure, we have got overflowing drainage, poorly constructed houses, uneven kuccha internal roads and big cave-ins,” said Ashok Vaghela, a resident of EWS housing colony in Saraspur.

Vaghela also said that they were rehabilitated to the colony a year back but no infrastructure had been provided to them despite the high court’s direction to do so before shifting them. “The AMC has got an award from the central government for best housing projects under JnNURM, but the ground reality is something different,” he said.

Meanwhile, the residents have threatened Gandhian-style protest if they are not provided proper infrastructure facilities soon.