PARADIP: Members of Basti Basinda Surakhya Samiti (BBSS) have threatened to launch a stir demanding basic amenities for the slum dwellers in the port town. They also demanded that the slums in the town be legalised.
There are 25 slums covering 59,216 households in the port town. They have been living without basic facilities such as drinking water, sanitation, electricity and road connectivity due to the long standing land dispute between State Government and Paradip Port Trust. Besides, many housing projects for slum dwellers were stalled due to the dispute.
However, the dispute was settled after intervention of Orissa High Court and State Government transferred nearly 6285.58 acres(Sandhakud -4356.03 acres, Bhitaragarh -1477.38 acres, Bijayachandrapur -57.73 acres and Nuasandhakud -394.40 acres) in favour of Paradip Port Trust without any lease. Even after the settlement of land dispute, no steps have been taken to legalise the slums.