Tamil Nadu may be among the most urbanised States with nearly half its population in cities but its urban slum clearance programmes appear to be far short of targets.
According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, an all-India survey by the National Sample Survey Office in 2012 showed there were 2,364 urban slums with 5.88 lakh families but 1,156 slums accounting for nearly half the slum population were not notified as slums.
The Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, the state run agency, is responsible for notifying slum areas for the government to take action.
The CAG report based on an audit of the TNSCB for the period between 2009 and 2014, said that the State government notified 1,202 slums in 1971 and 17 more in 1985.
Meagre funds According to the CAG report, the TNSCB had said in September 2014 that there was heavy migration into Chennai and formation of new slums in the city cannot be “vigilantly watched or controlled” by it. Also, declaration of more slums will encourage encroachment into vacant lands and demand for basic services. Meagre allocation of funds by the State government to meet slum-dwellers’ needs was also another reason.
However, slum surveys were conducted under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Programme in Chennai in 1986 and in nine other major cities in 1988.
Another survey was carried out in 2004 in Chennai. A comprehensive socio-economic survey was carried out by the TNSCB in 2011 for 10 cities under a centrally-sponsored programme, the report said.
Expedite allocation The CAG report also showed that of the 57,854 tenements planned under schemes such as the Basic Services for Urban Poor and the Emergency Tsunami Reconstruction project, only 20,650 were completed as of May 2014. Of these, only 9,978 tenements were allotted to beneficiaries as of August 2014.
The CAG has recommended that slum areas have to be notified for further action by the government and tenements allotted expeditiously to the beneficiaries.