PPF_housing1_129_1976_janta_cheetah
Image Caption (top): It is play time for children at their new homes in Cheetah Camp.
Image Caption (bottom): A long line of water pots bears witness to the struggle for water at Cheetah Camp where the three-hour supply starts at 7 p.m.
From Janata to Cheetah - a
successful slum transplant
By M. GANESH
A MAJOR effort at transplanting a shanty colony has met with considerable success in north-east Bombay.
Nearly 5,500 families of slum-dwellers have moved into Cheetah Camp from Janata Colony in Anushaktinagar, the housing complex of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre.
Janata Colony was dismantled in May. In a massive shifting operation lasting 25 days, more than 50,000 people were moved to Cheetah Camp, a few kilometres away.
The camp has an area of 53 acres. The land was bought by the BARC from the Bombay Municipal Corporation. The BARC has developed the area by laying roads, providing street lights, drainages, water taps and WCs. The development plan was prepared by the municipal corporation. The BARC also gave Rs. 400 as compensation to each family besides arranging for the free transport of belongings.
Of those shifted, 300 families will shortly be moving into ownership tenements being built by the New Janata Co-operative Housing Society. Later, 1,200: more will follow them.
TIMBER GODOWNS
The remaining 4,000 families have been allotted plots of varying sizes and many have built their own shelters, kutchha or pucca.
The regular dwellers of the colony have been provided with a space of 150 sq.ft. each. The unauthorised families have been given 100 sq. ft.
The biggest plot, of 800 sq. ft. each, has-been allotted to timber godowns; the smallest for paan-beedi shop is of 25 sq. ft.
Cheetah Camp has been divided into 11 sectors. One of these has been reserved for those who wish to own their tenements. The cooperative housing society, sponsored by the Bombay pradesh Congress committee, has estimated the cost of each tenement at Rs. 5,000.
The 300 families, which will soon move into the new tenements, have paid the cost in full. The other members of the society, besides paying Rs. 500 towards cost and Rs. 36 towards ‘expenses on enrolment, are making part payments according to their ability.
The society is trying to get 60 per cent. of the cost of each tenement as bank loan, which can be repaid in easy monthly instalments, says Mr. R. H. Shishode, municipal councillor, who is taking a keen interest in the project.
The ownership tenements are tile-roofed and, have a ceiling height of 17 feet. There is also an attic room. The area of each house is 290 sq. ft.
The height of the tenements in slums, according to the BMC rules, can be between nine and 11 feet and for regularised structures, from 12 to 14 feet. The ceiling height of 17 feet has been allowed by the municipal corporation as a special case.
The society is trying to get another relaxation of the rules - a tap inside each ownership tenement. The rules allow taps only in common places in hutment colonies.
Traders shifted from Janata Colony are being provided with plots alongside roads. Though only 112 shops have been shifted from the colony, now there are reported to be nearly 400 in the camp.
There are also several private dispensaries as well as 12 authorised ration shops.
In an effort not to hurt the religious feelings of the residents, plots have been reserved for the shifting of 19 places of worship that existed in Janata Colony.
The resettled residents at present use the cemetery of Anushaktinagar as space for this purpose has not been provided for in the plan. It is learnt that this too will be provided soon.
Though the main. roads in the camp are broad and levelled, the passages to the tenements are uneven and rough, But this is a temporary problem as the passages will soon be cemented, according to Mr. Shishode.
As in many other hutment colonies, fetching water from common taps poses a problem, many residents say. Adding to their difficulty, the street lights of late burn from around midnight to noon. As the colony gets water between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., the residents have to carry water in the dark.
It is reliably learnt that the Maharashtra slum improvement board has approved a grant for the camp which is proposed to be utilised for cementing the passages, providing covers to the open drainages and for building five electric sub-stations.
The municipal corporation has started a school providing teaching facilities up to the seventh standard in the Marathi, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil media. A market and a municipal dispensary are also proposed to be built.
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